Proposition 2: The Proposal
by Jane Elliott
Summary: The Sheppard Family goes to Atlantis. Not everyone is happy with the move, however, and relationships that once seemed solid are suddenly on shaky ground.


**Proposition 2: The Proposal  
by  
Jane Elliot**

"Hey, Switch!"

John scowled down at the lab bench. He hated that nickname. Scientists shouldn't be allowed to name anything, ever.

"Switch? Can you come over here?"

Forcing a smile on his face -- a smile that had grown gradually more brittle with each passing day -- John went over, as ordered. The scientist in question, Wallenstein, held up an Ancient artifact that looked remarkably similar to a ball of metal yarn. John touched it and it lit up. "Thanks, Switch," Wallenstein mumbled, his attention already focused on his new toy.

John sighed and went back to his seat next to Rodney who, enthralled with his own Ancient device, hadn't even noticed John's departure, much less his return. John dropped his head on crossed arms and debated the logistics of drowning himself. It seemed plausible. Plenty of water, anyway.

Four months ago, when John had been offered the opportunity to join Rodney in Atlantis, he'd jumped at the opportunity. Well, maybe not 'jumped', but John placed the blame of his reluctance primarily on the shoulders of Colonel Marshall 'I'm an asshole and proud of it' Sumner and Colonel Samantha 'Rodney's never getting over me' Carter, who had been the two people the SGC had sent to woo John into joining the mission. Plus that whole thing where Alex came back and tried to recruit John for an evil government conspiracy. That part had really sucked.

Still, Atlantis had Rodney and the promise of adventure and Earth had a distinct lack of Rodney and a continual stream of death threats from Lionel Luthor (who really needed to learn how to let go of a stupid grudge already) and in the end the decision hadn't been too difficult.

Of course, everything had gone to hell almost immediately. First they'd discovered that the ZPM they'd hoped to find on Atlantis wasn't there, and then Sumner went and got himself killed by a life-sucking space vampire (at least according to Aiden. He and Laura had gotten to Atlantis by signing up as Marines and were fitting in very nicely due to their ability to blow up shit better than anyone else in the city). There had been a power struggle then, because the next highest rated active officer was Bates (who was even more of an asshole than Sumner) and he and Elizabeth could barely be civil to each other. Worse, Bates wasn't much liked by the other Marines, and he was positively loathed by the scientists (not to mention the Athosians, who Bates had managed to piss off within five minutes of meeting them).

In the end they'd compromised with Captain Jim Ellison, who the SGC had stumbled upon when tracking down Blair Sandburg as part of their 'test everyone who's ever come in contact with John for the ATA gene' campaign, and who was now in Atlantis as a way to stay out of the clutches of the Trust because he was a Sentinel. John didn't know any of the details -- like who the Trust was or what the word 'sentinel' meant, other than a crappy B movie from the eighties -- but Ellison was nicer than Sumner and way nicer than Bates and that was enough for him.

Over Bates's protests, Ellison had been recalled to active service (by Elizabeth, which was kind of a stretch, but she _had_ been a Senator) and named military leader of Atlantis. There had been some grumblings after that, not about Ellison but rather about Blair, who was Jim's Guide, which seemed to translate into following Jim around like a puppy and irritating every military person in his path. Fortunately for everyone, Ellison proved to be good at his job and Blair was way more charming than John had remembered him being back in the day (all of seven months ago) when he and Daniel Jackson were throwing vegetation at each other. Eventually the rumblings had died down.

Which, of course, was when they'd started stumbling into Ancient labs chock full of deadly experiments with inadequate safety protocols.

All of which probably sounded very exciting to an outsider. Pity John wasn't an outsider. More importantly, he wasn't much of an insider either: for the first time in his life, John didn't fit in anywhere. His entire purpose was to play on/off switch for the scientists, and even that role was gradually disappearing as more of the scientists tried out Dr. Beckett's gene therapy. These days John was just there in case one of the Ancient devices needed a little coaxing.

Even more frustrating was how well everyone else was settling into their new lives. Aiden and Laura had both been snapped up by gate teams within the first couple of days and currently they spent most of their free time bonding with their new teammates or conspiring to invent super-explosives with the supplies they found on Atlantis. John saw them maybe once a week and then only if he stumbled on them in the mess; they smiled all the time and he'd never heard Laura sound so happy.

Ronon and Teyla were in equally high demand. Despite their lack of a gene, they'd made it to Atlantis thanks to Rodney, who'd placed them on Pegasus's payroll as personal bodyguards to him and John and then refused to go to Atlantis without them. Currently they were acting as diplomatic envoys between Atlantis and the Athosians (who positively adored Teyla and who had welcomed her like a long-lost member of the tribe), and were on continual standby for any and all rescue missions. Both were more alive than John had ever seen them: Teyla had blossomed under the Athosians' affection and Ronon thrived in his new-found role as Atlantis's version of Rambo.

As for Carson, he was enthralled with both his flourishing relationship with his recently-discovered father and with his job as Dr. Beckett's intern. He'd told John, in one of their increasingly rare chats, that he'd learned more in the few weeks they'd been in Atlantis than in all of his years of formal education. According to Dr. Beckett, Carson had played a key role in the development of the ATA gene therapy, and was soaking up knowledge like a sponge. There was even talk of Carson assisting in any upcoming surgeries.

And then there was Miko. John glanced over at his sister, who was currently typing rapidly on a laptop. She never called him Switch, both because she was Miko and because she never needed his gene; as far as John knew, hers was the second most powerful manifestation of the gene in Atlantis, which was how she'd gotten her foot in the door. Once the rest of the scientists got to know her, however, she had been taken into the fold based on her own merits. Rodney and Radek were personally overseeing the completion of her dissertation (last John had heard she was putting the finishing touches on her final draft, which put her a over a year ahead of the schedule her original school had given her), and even though she was the only scientist on the mission who didn't have a doctorate or three, she had already been asked to consult on several experiments.

On top of that, she'd been helping out in the kitchen as well. She wasn't quite at the same level as Jonas had been, but she was a far better chef than anyone the military had provided. Thanks to her deft touch and inventive mind, the infusion of new and increasingly exotic Pegasus Galaxy foodstuffs had not only been painless, but in most cases had been a pleasant experience. Her current triumph was a gumbo made with the antelope-like Ibixi from planet MXP-4582 served over a rice-like (after a bit of processing) grain from PXM-8254; she'd presented the recipe to the mess sergeant over a week ago and she was still getting stopped in the halls by impressed (and grateful) military personnel. (The scientists just thanked her by giving her more work.) Miko wasn't the smiling type, but these days she was positively glowing with satisfaction and pride.

All of which made John feel like even more of an asshole for being so miserable. After all, he'd gotten everything he wanted: it wasn't like his entire family had shipped themselves to another galaxy because they'd all spontaneously gotten tired of Earth. They'd come for him, and he'd come for Rodney, and he should be happy but he wasn't.

Maybe he was going stir-crazy. Ever since they'd arrived in Atlantis, John had been stuck in the city. Admittedly, that was true of most of the scientists, but it was still annoying, especially when Aiden, Laura, Ronon, and Teyla went out to other planets every few days, and even Carson and Miko had escaped the city once or twice -- Carson to help the Athosians with livestock that Atlantis had traded technical knowledge for on MPX-2584 and Miko to decide what to buy when trading for spices on PMX-5248.

Hell, even Rodney had gone out twice, both times to help cannibalize Ancient ruins found on uninhabited planets. Unlike John, who would have jumped at the chance to go, Rodney had bitched about leaving before, after, and (presumably) during each mission. The military didn't like Rodney much, but he'd gained a lot of points with them when he'd coaxed that energy-sucking black smoke monster to go through the stargate, and at least they'd begun to treat him with respect. John, they just ignored.

John was brought out of his musings when a foot hit his ankle. He lifted his head to find Rodney holding out another Ancient device, this one remarkably similar to a pile of children's block toys. Metal ones, of course. "What does this do?"

John sighed, but took the toy-device-thing. Sometimes he could identify what an item was just by touching it, sort of like someone or something was whispering the answer in his ear. The phenomenon kind of freaked John out, but Rodney thought it was cool so John couldn't complain too much.

Already activated by Rodney's artificial gene, the toy lit up like a sun when John took it. No weird sort-of whispers, though, so he handed it back with a shrug. Rodney took it and stared at John for several seconds before turning his attention back to his toy. John put his head back down.

Rodney's worry was growing increasingly obvious -- not only had he started having John touch more artifacts despite having his own gene now, but he'd also begun leaving John little gifts of candy, which was such a huge sacrifice on Rodney's part that John figured the scientist was approaching hysteria. The biggest sacrifice, however, had come in their bedroom: John hadn't topped Rodney for weeks, and Rodney hadn't complained once. John doubted Rodney had suddenly switched his sexual preferences, which meant that his topping John each night was just one more way Rodney was trying to make up for something that was entirely John's fault. It's not like they'd forced John to come on this mission, after all. He was in Atlantis of his own free will.

Suddenly John was thoroughly sick of himself and especially of his self-pity. "I'm going for a walk," he announced. Rodney just grunted; everyone else ignored the statement.

It was better once he made it outside. Atlantis had beautiful weather: clean, warm air; clear blue skies; and an elegant, graceful skyline no matter which direction you looked, out to sea or back toward the city. It was times like these that John was glad for his decision, that he had the opportunity to see this remarkable city.

Now if only he could find something to _do_ in the remarkable city, life would be perfect.

ooo

That night Rodney sucked John slow and sweet, until John was aching with the need to come, and then Rodney used those wonderfully thick fingers of his to open John up with a level of care he hadn't used since those first few times when John was getting used to bottoming again.

By the time Rodney pushed into him, John was begging for a hard fast fuck, but Rodney moved slowly, carefully, treating John as if he were something infinitely precious.

Once they were sated, Rodney held John close, one arm over John's chest and a leg draped over John's thighs, pressing him to the bed with his body.

ooo

After that, John took to spending several hours each day under the brilliant Atlantean sun. Most of the time he just walked, or maybe tanned on an outer pier of the city, but he spent more and more time running. Running was something he'd enjoyed doing in his past life, but he'd gotten out of practice in those first few all-consuming months of dating Rodney and then later in the barely controlled chaos of preparation before leaving for Atlantis. Looking back, John didn't know what he'd been thinking; unlike most people who ran for exercise, John ran because he loved it: the smooth working of his muscles and lungs, the time alone to think, the adrenaline and eventual endorphin rush. When he finished a run John was smiling and comfortable in his own skin, and on those days he returned to the labs with a smile.

Because he was a perverse bastard, Rodney never shared John's happiness on running days -- instead his mouth grew even more crooked and he'd work though both lunch and dinner.

And then they met Chaya.

When John first heard about the paradise world protected by some sort of energy weapon, he'd shrugged it off -- it was possible that they'd get a ZPM out of the deal, but at this point they'd already had too many false alarms for him to get his hopes up too high. He was more excited for Carson, who was going on his first off-world mission; apparently the folks on this planet were abnormally healthy and Carson and Dr. Beckett were determined to find out why.

It was when they came back with Chaya -- to run medical tests on her using Atlantis's scanners -- that everything went to hell.

At first, John didn't even realize it was happening. He'd never felt the remotest attraction to a woman before, so when he passed her in a hallway and felt that familiar tingle below his belt, he just assumed that he was reacting to the (admittedly very fine) marine escorting Chaya around the city. She'd looked him in the eye and smiled at him and he'd nodded back and three minutes later had forgotten the entire exchange.

A few hours later, a crystal array spontaneously blew up a couple of feet from John and after Rodney had arrived on the scene to have a spectacularly loud freak out session, John was sent to the infirmary with scratches and burns. Chaya was still playing guinea pig, and he spent a few minutes chatting with her while a female nurse patched him up. Their conversation wasn't much, just small talk really, and even that dried up as John realized that he was hard.

"Is something wrong?" Chaya asked.

John tried not to blush, but there was no use; his whole face was burning as he tried to figure out what the hell was going on with his body. "Uh, no."

Thankfully the nurse was just finishing up and a minute later John was free to go. "See you later," he told Chaya, hoping that he was lying through his teeth. He fled.

Rodney wasn't in the room when John got there, for which John was profoundly grateful. Probably still trying to figure out why that array had exploded; if he was smart, he'd call in Ford and Laura to help. John flopped onto the bed and stared at the ceiling, coming up with lists of reasons why Rodney should ask Ford and Laura for help and another list of reasons why he wouldn't.

He'd just managed to relax his mind enough for a doze, when he realized that he was picturing Chaya. Naked. And he was getting hard again.

"Shit!" he swore, rolling out of bed and digging in the closet for his sneakers. Maybe a run would help.

Running didn't help.

Worse, as he was rounding that last corner before his and Rodney's room, he saw Chaya standing next to the door, holding a wicker basket.

Well, fuck.

He considered turning right back around and running another five miles, but she looked up and saw him before he had the chance. Damn it. Plastering on his best fake smile, John walked up to her. "Hi. Didn't think I'd see you again."

She smiled in that fake-shy way women had. Normally John hated it, but tonight it turned him on. Just like everything else about Chaya.

Christ, Rodney was going to kill him.

"I wanted to thank you for earlier," she said, still working the innocent virgin routine. Though he'd heard somewhere that she was a temple priestess, so maybe she _was_ a virgin. Ick. And yet, he was hard as a fucking rock.

"Thank me?" he repeated, desperately trying to come up with a way to get rid of her. Or to get her into the room. Or maybe just run away again. "For what?"

She looked up at him from under her eyelashes. He wanted to hate it. "Everyone here has treated me like an oddity, except you. I feel a connection with you unlike any I've ever felt before."

Oh hell. Who was he kidding? Maybe he really had been bi his whole life and just hadn't met the right woman. But if Rodney, or worse, _Radek_ found out... "What's in the basket?" he asked desperately.

"Dinner. If you are free?"

No. No no no no no. "Yes."

Her smile grew into something beautiful, and John found himself wondering if this was what people meant by love at first sight.

ooo

They went to the top of a tower in one of the most remote parts of the city. The transporters worked (Rodney had once told him that they shared an internal power system, so that if one worked, they all worked), but nothing else did and John found out that Chaya looked even more stunning by moonlight. Hell, she was practically glowing.

He couldn't take his eyes off of her.

"This is good," he commented as he bit into a piece of cheese. It tasted like a really sharp cheddar, except that he could have sworn that they'd used up all the Earth cheese last month.

"It is from my homeworld," she said. "Try this," she added, holding a piece of fruit near his lips. "The tastes are complimentary."

John leaned forward an inch and pulled the fruit into his mouth, sucking gently on her fingers at the same time. "It's good," he murmured, and he wasn't talking about the tart tang of the fruit.

She smiled at him. "Yes," she murmured. "Very good."

He leaned forward again and she met him halfway and suddenly they were kissing.

"_What_ the _fuck_?"

John jerked back from Chaya to find Rodney standing next to them, his face so red it was visible even in the moonlight. "Rodney, I--"

But it was too late. Rodney was already gone.

John started to stand, to go after him, but a slim hand on his wrist stopped him. "John, don't go," Chaya said softly. "Don't leave me here alone."

And this was the part that he could never explain later, not even after Miko and Carson investigated and detailed everything they'd learned.

He stayed.

ooo

When he got to his and Rodney's room later that night, he found his clothes sitting in a pile next to the door. On the door itself was a note with several lines scribbled out:

You fucking _asshole_

John, you bastard

If you think that I

At the bottom was a single sentence that hadn't been struck through, though the pen used to write it had pressed so far down into the paper that it had torn through in some places.

_Enter at your own risk._

John wasn't an idiot. He grabbed as many of his clothes as he could hold and walked away, leaving a trail of dropped socks and underwear in his wake.

ooo

The next morning he woke up slightly nauseous and sporting a miserable headache. He'd hoped a hot shower would help, but the water never got warmer than not-quite-lukewarm. He could probably thank Radek for that; Rodney's retribution, whenever it occurred, was going to be epic.

God, he hated his fucking life.

Unable to face the prospect of breakfast, he went straight to the labs. Hopefully someone would have something for him to do already.

He just barely made it into the room before he realized what a huge mistake this had been.

It wasn't Rodney who was the problem; in fact, Rodney wasn't even there, which was a bad sign in and of itself. Despite that, however, the news of John and Chaya had obviously spread throughout the science department, because no one would look him in the eye except for Radek, who met him three steps from the door. "Why are you here?" Radek hissed.

"Uh, I work here?"

Radek's eyes narrowed dangerously. "Do you remember a conversation we had last year about what would happen if you hurt Rodney again?"

Like he was going to forget it -- he wasn't threatened with nuclear immolation very often. "Look, Radek, I don't know--"

"_No._" John blinked at the shout, but Radek wasn't done yet. "You do not know. You are blind and selfish and cruel and I will not have you polluting this lab any longer. Get out."

"But--"

"Get _out_."

John looked around the room and found himself staring at stony faces and crossed arms. Even Miko looked pretty pissed.

"Okay," John said quietly. "I'll go."

Lifting his chin in a pale imitation of Rodney, John forced himself to walk out of the lab with his head held high.

It lasted just long enough for the door to shut behind him. "Oh shit," he murmured, his eyes burning as he slumped against the nearest wall. "Oh fuck, fuck, _fuck_."

The lab door hissed open again and John hastily turned away, attempting to straighten his shoulders.

"John?"

"Not now, Miko." There, that didn't sound too bad. Maybe a little watery.

A small hand took his elbow and gently turned him around. John let himself be turned, but refused to lift his eyes. "John, what's going on?"

"I have no idea," John admitted. "I just -- I mean, _fuck_. She's a _woman_. What was I _thinking_?"

"I'm guessing you weren't," Miko said dryly.

John sighed. "I guess not." He slumped back against the wall. "I just don't understand," he added quietly. "It was like I wasn't in control of my body. One look at her and suddenly I'm straight." He thumped his head against the wall. "She's not even very attractive."

Miko moved to lean against the wall next to him, staring at the opposite wall. "She's beautiful," Miko said bluntly. "If you like women."

"Which I _don't_," John snapped. "Usually."

They stood there silently for several minutes, John wondering what the fuck he was going to do now, and Miko thinking...whatever Miko thought. "Go home, John," she suddenly said.

"If only I could," John muttered, and he wasn't talking about the tiny room he'd shared with Rodney. When Miko looked at him, however, he went with the acceptable explanation. "Rodney kicked me out." Miko raised a pointed eyebrow. John winced and added sheepishly, "Not that I blame him."

"Go back to your current room then," Miko said in a gentler voice. "I'll see what I can learn."

It wasn't a promise to make things better, but John felt a weight slide off his shoulders nevertheless. Of all his siblings, Miko was the one who was the most adept at getting him out of bad situations. "Thanks, Miki," he said, sincerely.

At the sound of her nickname, the one John hadn't used in years, Miko visibly softened. "Things will turn out all right. You'll see."

John didn't believe that for a second, but he smiled and nodded anyway. There was just something about Miko that soothed him, whether he wanted to be soothed or not. "Can I help with anything?" he asked tentatively.

"No--" she started to say, but stopped. "Yes. Go see Carson and have him run a full physical."

"Okay," John said, relieved to have something to do. "Okay. Thanks."

Miko just shook her head and pushed him in the direction of the nearest transporter, but John had seen her secret almost-smile before he'd turned away and it made him feel a hundred times better.

ooo

The physical didn't take long, though John ended up surrendering more bodily fluids than he was happy to lose, and soon he found himself at loose ends. Even less inclined to visit the mess now that he knew most of the science department had it out for him (not to mention Rodney, who was undoubtedly going to come out of his room with his big guns blazing), John wandered back to his (hopefully) temporary room with the intention of grabbing his sneakers and going for a run. A long, hard run. Maybe if he turned his muscles into jello he'd be able to go back to sleep for a few...weeks. Long enough for Rodney to either forgive him or learn how to build a ZPM so he could send John back to Earth. All things considered, the ZPM seemed like the safer bet.

John's plan was derailed, however, when he opened the door to his room and found that it wasn't empty. "Ronon."

Ronon was sitting on the floor, his back resting against John's narrow bed (the bed in John and Rodney's room was much bigger -- Teyla and Ronon had found it when looking for a larger bed for themselves). "John."

John considered just ignoring him, but it was really hard to ignore someone who was taking up half of the available floor space in your bedroom. "What are you doing here?"

"Heard what happened," Ronon said with a shrug.

Shit. If _Ronon_ had heard, that meant _everyone_ knew.

"Thought you might want to go for a run," Ronon added.

"Oh," John said. "_Yes._"

So they ran, and Ronon didn't hold back, which meant John was winded after less than a mile and by the end of the run he felt ready to collapse on the nearest semi-soft surface. Ronon, of course, wasn't even breathing heavily.

He also followed John into his room. John dropped down on the bed and stared at Ronon askance. "Is there something else?"

Ronon settled back down on the floor, leaning against the bed. "Thought you might want to talk."

John stared. "Teyla sent you, didn't she?"

Ronon shrugged.

"Why isn't she here? This is more her cup of tea than yours." Yes, John could do understatement with the best of them.

"She had to go to the mainland." Ronon scowled, which he didn't do very often and which made him look like a pissed-off grizzly bear. "She's dating someone there."

"_She's_ dating someone there?" John repeated, shocked. Teyla and Ronon had been dating as a pair since they'd started going out with people in high school. At first John had thought Ronon was just playing chaperone so Teyla would feel comfortable -- John didn't know all of the details of Teyla's life before she came to live with the Sheppards, but he knew enough that if he ever met Teyla's biological mother he'd happily kill her -- but after nearly a decade of them playing two-thirds of a triangle with a rotating third point, John now thought of them as a unit. "What about you?"

"Athosians don't like me," Ronon said bluntly.

John frowned. "Why?"

Ronon shrugged.

John sighed, but it was no more or less than he expected from his brother. "I'll talk to her."

Ronon just grunted, but his shoulders relaxed a fraction. "And you and Chaya?" he asked. Apparently Teyla had been very specific in what information she wanted him to bring back, because Ronon wasn't usually this relentless when it came to talking about feelings. Or talking at all.

"I don't know," John groaned. "Miko and Carson are looking into it, because it doesn't seem likely that I just woke up one morning and was straight."

"You were drugged?" Ronon asked, his voice suddenly much sharper.

John sat up in the bed. This could be tricky -- the last thing any of them needed was for Ronon to kill someone, especially if that someone was the revered high priestess of the best potential food source in the galaxy. "Maybe," John said carefully. "Maybe not. All we know right now is that I found myself attracted to Chaya. Really attracted."

"You don't like women."

"Yeah," John said with a sigh. Ronon no longer looked like he was ready to go out and kill something, so John settled back into the bed. "That's why Miko and Carson are looking into it."

Ronon just grunted again. They sat in silence for a while and before he knew it, John was asleep. When he woke up again, Ronon was gone and there was a stack of MREs sitting on the table John was using as a nightstand. Stuck to the top of the food was a note:

"Running. Tomorrow. 6:00 a.m."

John smiled and tore into the first meal. Lasagna. God, he loved his family.

ooo

John had planned to talk to Teyla the next day, after the requisite grueling run with Ronon, but apparently she was out on the mainland for an extended visit because she was nowhere to be found. Making a note to track her down whenever she made it back to Atlantis, John headed to the labs to casually walk past the open door and peek inside. It took several passes before he confirmed to himself that Rodney was nowhere in sight.

Well, that was a disturbing development. John made one more pass to be sure, but this time he inadvertently caught Radek's eye, and the glower he got in return was enough to convince John to try looking for Rodney outside. Preferably on the other side of the city.

Four hours later, John came to the conclusion that Rodney had either mastered invisibility, or he was still hiding in his room. Feeling queasy, no doubt due to the heavy weight that seemed to have taken up permanent residence in his stomach, John wandered back to the infirmary. Maybe Carson had found something.

Which was how John learned that Chaya was still in Atlantis.

As soon as he saw her sitting on the infirmary bed, John started getting hard. He may not have been the most brilliant person in the family, but he wasn't stupid. He ran.

ooo

The next few days he spent hiding in his room, living off the MREs Ronon had given him and generally beating himself up. When the mental beating wasn't enough, he'd gotten down on the floors and done sit-ups until his abs spasmed in protest. Then he'd flipped onto his stomach and done push-ups until his arms gave out underneath him.

Occasionally Atlantis's version of a doorbell would tinkle but John steadfastly ignored it. After the first couple of days someone tried to push the issue; thankfully John's privacy lock held. Rodney or Radek could have patched together a manual override, but clearly neither one was interested in seeing John face-to-face, though that didn't stop one of them (probably Radek) from finding a way to lower the shower temperature from lukewarm to icy and from doing something to the lights that made them turn on at 2:30 or so every morning and then refuse to turn off again.

Finally, just as John was getting to the bottom of his pile of MREs, the doorbell tinkled, and the impossible happened: the door slid open and Jack was on the other side.

John's meal slid out of his suddenly nerveless hand. "Jack?" he whispered, wondering if he had gone completely insane.

"No," the man said.

Oh. John frowned. "Who are you? How did you get in here?"

The man grinned. "According to Miko, I've got the strongest gene in Atlantis so I can get in anywhere. As for who I am--" He held out his hand. "I'm MacGyver."

John took the hand numbly. "John Sheppard."

"I know," MacGyver -- what kind of name was MacGyver, anyway? -- said. "I've been filling in for you at the labs." He leaned in. "Do you have any idea how boring that is?"

"Yes," John said flatly.

MacGyver grinned again and stepped back. "Yeah, I guess you would. On the other hand, I have an actual job around here and would like to get back to it. Come on, Miko's waiting for us."

John tried glaring at the man, which did no good. "Fine," he muttered and followed MacGyver out into the hallway.

After a few minutes in silence, he added, "You know, you look just like Jack. Maybe a little younger."

"That's what Carson said," MacGyver answered. He wasn't smiling anymore. "And before you ask, no, I don't have any brothers or siblings, and my father died when I was ten."

"Are you sure?" John asked, though MacGyver didn't look that much younger than Jack.

MacGyver stopped. "Kind of tactless, aren't you."

John sighed. "I didn't used to be." Not before he met Rodney.

MacGyver shook his head, but started walking. "Only child and I was there when they buried my father."

John winced. "Sorry." They walked silently for a few more minutes, until the infirmary was almost in sight. Remembering what happened the last time he was in the infirmary and desperate for a distraction, John dug down deep for a bit of that charm that used to be his bread and butter. With as bright a smile as he could manage, John said, "I haven't seen you in the labs before, so I'm guessing you're a Marine."

MacGyver stared at him askance and upon reflection, the question probably had seemed to come out of nowhere. John sighed and his shoulders slumped. "Sorry," he repeated.

MacGyver snorted and shook his head. On John's questioning glance, he said, "I'm a sucker for that hang-dog look. You wouldn't believe how many ladies used it to get me into trouble."

John squawked. "I'm not a lady."

"I'll say," MacGyver answered. He stopped at the door to the infirmary. "After you."

John glowered at him, but stepped inside to find Carson and Miko huddled over a laptop sitting on one of the infirmary beds. "John," Carson said brightly. "You're here!" He turned to MacGyver. "Thanks, Mac."

"No problem, Carson," MacGyver said. It sounded like he was smirking. John decided to hate him, on principle. "If that's everything then I'll--"

"Actually, I was wondering if you could look at the DNA scanner," Carson said quickly. "It won't stay calibrated, and I can't get anyone from engineering to come look at it."

John frowned. "Why not?"

Carson cleared his throat. "Radek, uh, isn't talking to me."

"Or me," Miko said. "However, I believe what we've found will help."

"Right," MacGyver said. "Then I'll just go look at the scanner." He moved a discreet distance away and started pulling control panels off of a large piece of equipment in the corner.

John watched him for a second before turning back to Miko and Carson. "I thought he wasn't a scientist."

"He isn't, technically," Miko said.

"But he's _amazing_," Carson gushed. "Just last week he helped SGA-3 escape from a cave in by building a detonator out of an empty MRE wrapper."

"You're kidding," John said, smothering a scowl. Carson spent an awful lot of time caught up in hero worship these days. It was irritating enough when it was Carson's biological father. For him to be falling all over himself like this for a _stranger_?BR>  
"It was a blasting cap, not a detonator," Miko said. "But it was impressive."

Crap. Now _Miko_ was gushing. "What did you find out about Chaya?" John asked desperately.

Thankfully, Carson settled down quickly to the problem at hand. "Oh, right. Well, first things first -- Chaya isn't human."

"_What_?" John yelped. There was a clang across the room as MacGyver dropped a panel and all three Sheppards turned to look at him.

"You know, I think I'll just--" He jerked his head in the direction of the door. "I'll come back later to look at the scanner, Carson."

"That's fine, Mac," Carson said. "Tha--"

But Mac, clearly not a dummy, was already gone.

Carson frowned. "Damn. I was hoping to use that scanner on you, John." He sighed philosophically. "Oh well. At least now--"

"What do you mean, 'Chaya's not human'?" John cut in. "What is she?"

"Ancient," Miko said, and her calm tone cut through John's panic like a knife. "As far as we can tell, she was an ascended Ancient. Once Dr. Zelenka discovered that, however, she left, and we haven't been able to connect with her homeworld since."

"So, what -- I was in lust with her because she was an Ancient?" John asked helplessly. "Does it have something to do with the gene?"

"In a way," Carson said, looking distinctly uncomfortable. "But probably not the way you think."

"Your attraction had very little to do with Chaya," Miko said. "And it's likely that the same can be said for her attraction to you."

"Guys, you're starting to freak me out here," John said. "Just get it over with. What's wrong with me?"

"Nothing's wrong with you," Carson said. "But your responses weren't your own. The reason you responded so powerfully to Chaya was because you were dosed with extremely high levels of pheromones. We think she was dosed as well, though she wouldn't let us test for it."

"I was drugged? With pheromones?" John repeated. It didn't sound any more likely coming out of his mouth. "By who? And why?"

"By Atlantis," Carson said simply.

John stared at him. "Atlantis?" Carson nodded. "You're telling me the _city_ wanted me to hook up with Chaya? That a bunch of buildings is so invested in me getting laid that it slipped me a roofie?"

Carson turned to Miko. "Help?"

Miko sighed. "There's more to Atlantis than just the structure, John. Most significant in this case is her neural network, which supports an artificial intelligence far beyond anything we've managed on earth."

"So, what, it's like that kid in AI?" John shuddered. "That's kind of creepy."

"Not that sophisticated," Miko said. "The Ancients were considerably more advanced than we are, but they weren't able to program Atlantis with anything more than a rudimentary level of critical thinking. Difficult problems were handled by Ancient scientists and the solutions programmed into Atlantis's database. When confronted with any problem for which she doesn't already have a solution, Atlantis's cognitive abilities are approximately equivalent to that of a young child."

"A young child who spent the last ten thousand years alone," Carson added. "And when people did come, most of them didn't have any way of communicating with her. Only you, Miko, and MacGyver have a strong enough natural gene to interact with Ancient technology beyond a superficial level."

"The whispers," John murmured.

Carson nodded. "I suspect that the Ancients were able to interact with Atlantis telepathically. What a letdown we must have been to her."

John shook his head. "I still don't understand what this has to do with me and Chaya."

"A female Ancient and a male with a strong manifestation of the ATA gene," Miko said gently. "To a child who is desperately hoping for more playmates, the solution would be an obvious one."

"Oh, God," John said, feeling sick. "She was trying to breed us, wasn't she? Like cattle."

Carson winced, but nodded. "We think so. The pheromones, the exploding panel that forced you to the infirmary, even the fact that Proculus was one of the first gate addresses the database search produced. It's all a little too convenient to be a coincidence."

"But you said Chaya was an ascended Ancient," John said desperately. "Doesn't that mean she's an energy being or something like that? Somehow I doubt I could knock up someone who doesn't even have a body."

"A child's level of thinking," Miko said gently. "Chaya looked human and acted human. Carson was even able to draw blood from her. Apparently Atlantis thought that was close enough." She cleared her throat and pointed at the laptop. "If it would help, we have the proof here. The results of your blood test, the..."

John walked stiffly to the nearest bed and Miko's voice trailed off. "John?" she said as he collapsed onto the thin mattress. "Are you all right?"

John shook his head and curled up on himself on the mattress. Distantly he heard Miko and Carson whispering to each other, then Miko left and Carson dragged a chair over next to the bed. "John? John, can you hear me?"

"I don't want to talk," John forced out past frozen lips. God, he was cold. He couldn't stop shaking.

Carson disappeared from John's line of sight. A moment later Carson reappeared with an armful of blankets, which he carefully draped over John. "Here, these should help."

John clutched the edge of one of the blankets. "Thanks, Carson."

"No problem, lad," Carson answered quietly.

John smothered a groan. "You've been spending way too much time with your dad."

Carson smiled. "That's it, John. Get indignant about my dad." John glared at him. "What?" Carson asked. "A shift in emotions is the first step in recovering from psychological shock."

Admittedly, John did feel a little better. He frowned a little at Carson's words, though. "Carson, you know I'm glad you found your dad, right? Deep down, I am glad." Carson looked skeptical. "Really, really deep down."

"So deep you can't find it yourself, I'm guessing," Carson said dryly, but John knew his brother well enough to see that he was secretly pleased.

He was just patting himself on the back for getting something right when Miko came back in the room.

With Rodney.

Oh, shit.

"I don't think I'm up for this," John said quietly.

"It's okay," Rodney said, sounding scarily subdued even as he moved to the bed and sat down in the chair Carson had just vacated. "Miko told me what happened."

"Oh," John said hollowly.

"It wasn't your fault," Rodney said, sounding just as convinced as John. Still, at least he wasn't hiding away in his room anymore and his fingers were warm when he brushed a strand of hair off of John's forehead. John turned into the touch, keeping his eyes locked on Rodney's face the entire time.

Rodney looked...well, he looked awful. His skin was pasty, except for red splotches on his cheeks and neck, and he had several breakouts around his forehead and chin. On top of that, there were large black circles under his eyes and it had been several days since he shaved. Judging from the greasiness of his hair, it'd been nearly as long since he showered. "I'm sorry," John said miserably.

"Yeah, I know," Rodney said. He added so quietly that John didn't think he was supposed to hear, "You're always sorry."

What could John say to that? Considering the way he'd treated Rodney in the past, the way he'd jerked him around when they'd first started dating, repeatedly ripping his heart out because he couldn't get over his own fears... Rodney had given him one last chance, had told him that if he fucked up again, then they were done.

Sleeping with someone else seemed like a pretty big fuck-up.

"I'm sorry," John whispered and he closed his eyes so he wouldn't have to see Rodney's reaction.

ooo

Any subconscious hopes John had had of Carson and Miko's explanation smoothing over all of his problems with Rodney were quickly crushed. He was back in their shared room and their shared bed, but that was all they shared. Rodney had gone from spending all of his time in his room to spending all of his time in his lab, and while the ban on John being in the lab had technically been lifted, it was patently obvious that Radek hadn't been satisfied by the pheromone explanation. After a week of trying to hold up under the dual blows of Radek's withering glare and Rodney's studied avoidance, John was almost grateful for Miko's quiet suggestion that he stay away from the lab for a few weeks to let rational thinking reassert itself.

He did a lot of running the first few days, letting Ronon chase him around the city till he thought his legs would fall off. When even that wasn't enough, Ronon offered to teach him how to fight. John got really good at taking a punch.

Rodney never spoke of the bruises that spread over the majority of John's body. In fact, Rodney never spoke of much of anything, at least not to John. John wasn't sure if it was better or worse to know (thanks to Miko) that Rodney was as loud in the labs as he was silent at home -- on the one hand, he was happy to know that his Rodney was still in there somewhere; on the other, it sucked that everyone got that Rodney but him.

Considering the fact that they were living together, it was amazing how separate their lives had managed to become. No matter how late John stayed up, Rodney always managed to stay out later, and Ronon dragged John out for a run every morning before Rodney woke up. Even in their bed, which was larger than the cots that the single folks got, but not by much, they managed not to touch, with each man sleeping perched on the edge of their side of the mattress.

Once John ran into Rodney in the mess. He'd tried to smile, but Rodney had just given him a stricken look in return and stuttered something about being needed back in the lab. He hurried away so fast that he forgot to drop off his empty tray on the way out.

John avoided the mess hall after that.

A week after John was banished from the labs, Teyla returned from the mainland and John didn't think it was a coincidence that his and Ronon's morning run went past her door. Twice.

As he walked Ronon to his room (Laura had suggested that Ronon take the room John had temporarily resided in, saying that if Teyla still wanted them to be together, she would come running to ask Ronon to move back in. John wasn't nearly as confident, but he and Ronon had to concede the fact that Laura was a woman while they, indubitably, were not, and as such, decided Laura probably understood Teyla better than they did), John said, "Don't worry. I'll talk to her today."

Ronon just grunted, but it was a grateful sort of grunt.

Teyla proved to be surprisingly difficult to track down; based on the answers to the dozens of 'have you seen my sister? No, the other one,' questions he'd asked around Atlantis, she'd had meetings with Elizabeth, Captain Ellison, one of the botanists (John kind of thought her name was Katie, but he couldn't be sure), Blair, and a cabal of linguists. By the time he managed to catch her just outside her room, it was after dark and John was starting to feel distinctly like a stalker. "Teyla?" he called, jogging up the corridor. "Wait up."

Teyla smiled at him and paused, letting him reach her before stepping inside her room. She barely made it through the door before stopping and narrowing her eyes. "Where is Ronon?"

John took two big steps back and held up his hands. "It was all Laura's idea."

Teyla grabbed John's arm and pulled him into the room. "_What_ was Laura's idea?"

"Uh, she thought Ronon should move out?" John asked, preparing himself to fall gracefully should Teyla decide to take a swing at him. He had no illusions about his ability to take Teyla in a fight.

Teyla didn't take a swing at him. In fact, she didn't even look very angry. More...stunned. "Oh," she said quietly. "Oh."

She sat down on the bed, looking surprisingly small and fragile. "So you know."

John sat down next to her. "Ronon told me. Laura figured it out on her own, probably during one of her gossip sessions with Carson." Teyla just nodded. John chewed his lip for a second before asking the question. The big question. "So is this a temporary thing? Are you two getting back together?"

"No," Teyla said, her voice quiet but firm. "No, I don't think so."

The word hit him like a physical blow and suddenly, absurdly, he wanted to cry. It seemed everything was going wrong lately: John had struggled to find a purpose in Atlantis, he'd gotten date-raped by a fucking city, and his relationship with Rodney was going down for the third time. Add this on top of everything else...Teyla and Ronon were a keystone for the Sheppard family, together so long and so tight that everyone had started to think of them as one person, even John. For their relationship to crumble with everything else... "Why not?" John asked, barely managing to keep his voice level. "What went wrong? I mean, you were fine when we left Earth, so--" His voice cracked and he clamped his lips shut. Christ. What a day. What a fucking day.

"It's not just since we came to Atlantis, John. It's not been right for a while." Teyla sighed and pulled her legs up on the bed so she was sitting cross-legged. "We might have been able to keep up the facade longer on Earth, but I don't think we could have maintained it forever. Unfortunately Ronon and I want different things. We need different things."

"Okay," John said. "That makes sense." He nudged her with his shoulder. "So what is it you want?"

"I want an equal partner," Teyla said with a hint of sadness. "I want someone else to be in control sometimes." She took a deep breath. "When I was younger...well." She smiled bitterly. "You know what I was like when I was younger. Wounded, down deep inside. Ronon was a lifesaver for me then. At that point in my life I desperately needed to be in control of something and Ronon let me control him. He supported me, helped me find my boundaries, and kept me safe so that I would have a chance to heal. I was grateful to him, so grateful. I think he might have saved my life."

Teyla sighed and rested her head on John's shoulder. John couldn't have been more stunned if she had slapped him, but he recovered quickly and wrapped his arms around her. "So what went wrong?" he asked quietly.

"I was young," Teyla said simply. "I was young and didn't realize until too late what I was doing. I didn't understand that Ronon--" She stopped and sighed. "For me it was a phase, a time for me to recoup and heal. I never thought I would do it forever. I never understood that for Ronon it was a discovery of himself. That he would come to need it. That maybe he always had and always would need it."

"Need what?" John whispered, afraid of the answer, afraid of what he might learn that he could never forget, but unable to stop the question because this was Teyla, his sister, and it was obvious that she needed to talk. That she had needed to talk for a long time and that holding this in had been ripping her up inside. "What does Ronon need?"

"A leader," Teyla said, her voice heavy with weariness. "Someone he trusts to tell him what to do, because he's never learned to trust himself and I don't think he ever will."

"Oh, Teyla," John murmured, dropping his head so his temple rested against the top of Teyla's head. "I'm sorry."

Teyla heaved a great breath that hitched suspiciously halfway through. "No, I'm sorry. I wish I could be what he needs, because I love him, I truly do, but I can't. Especially not now. Not here. I have a chance to start over, John, a chance to be part of something amazing."

Oh, no. No no no. John really didn't like the sound of this. He had to swallow twice to get enough spit to ask, "What do you mean?"

Teyla sniffed and leaned back, lifting one hand to wipe damp eyes. God, she was beautiful, even when she cried. Beautiful inside and out. John could understand why Ronon was so torn up over the thought of losing her.

Then she dropped the bombshell: "The Athosians have asked me to join them," she said, her eyes searching John's for something he doubted he could ever give. "They want me to become one of the tribe."

John's blood ran cold. "They what?"

"They've invited me to join their tribe. I'd be as much a member as anyone born into the tribe, which means I'll be able to vote in tribal decisions and I can represent the Athosians during offworld missions." She sat up and John dropped his arms. "It's a great honor, John, one that very few people are offered."

"But...but..."

"I'm not exchanging one family for another," Teyla said gently. "I am a Sheppard. I will always be a Sheppard. Only now I will be an Athosian Sheppard." She cocked her head thoughtfully. "As a matter of fact, so will you."

John stared. "What?"

She smiled. "When I become an Athosian, my family also gains tribal association. On an honorary basis, which means you can't vote, but you will be welcome to attend tribal events."

"You mean the parties," John guessed.

"Yes."

"Huh," John said. "I guess that's something." He sighed. "Does this mean you'll be spending more time on the mainland? To be with that guy you're dating?"

Teyla frowned. "What guy?"

"Ronon said you were dating someone on the mainland."

"Did he mean Halling?" John shrugged and Teyla shook her head, looking amused. "I'm not dating Halling."

"Oh. But if not him, then--"

"I'm not dating anyone at the moment," Teyla cut in, before John could say something too embarrassing. "I haven't been single since high school, John. I'm enjoying the experience."

"Well," John said, wrapping an arm around her shoulders. "If anyone can make single look good, it's you."

Teyla smiled warmly. "Thank you, John."

"No problem, sis."

John stayed with Teyla for another couple of hours, catching up on all of her gossip from the mainland, explaining the Chaya nightmare and everything else she'd missed while she was gone. It was a good thing that the address for Proculus wasn't working anymore; judging from the look in Teyla's eyes, Chaya would do well to steer clear.

"It wasn't her fault, you know," John said. "She was just as drugged as I was."

"Hm," Teyla said, and her resemblance to Ronon at that moment was uncanny. And unnerving.

By the time they'd caught up with each other's lives, it was well past midnight and John crept into his room to keep from waking Rodney. He needn't have bothered, however, as Rodney was still awake, fully dressed, and sitting on the side of the bed, staring with accusing eyes as John walked through the door. "Where have you been?" he snapped with a level of belligerence he usually reserved for Kavanaugh.

John froze half in and half out of the door. "Uh, Teyla came back from the mainland today. We were catching up."

"Oh." Rodney's shoulders slumped. "Sorry. I thought--" He waved his hand.

"You thought what?" John asked, stepping inside the room so the door could close. He wasn't sure what was going on inside Rodney's head, but he suspected it was something important.

"I thought...well, I thought you were gone." He crossed his arms and tried to look angry, but all he managed was miserable. When he spoke again, his voice was soft and pained. "I thought you'd left me."

John blinked back a sudden stinging in his eyes. "Oh, Rodney." He sat down next to Rodney and pulled him into a hug. "I wouldn't do that," he murmured into the soft skin of Rodney's neck. "I wouldn't leave you."

Rodney's arms wrapped tight around John's body, his hands fisted in the back of John's shirt. "I know, I know, it's just...things have been so bad between us lately, and I know you're not happy here, and it's my fault, but I never meant to hurt you and if I could send you back I would, you have to know I--"

John pulled back a little, just enough to cut off the flow of words with his lips. Rodney kept talking for half a second before moaning into John's mouth and throwing himself into the kiss with passionate hunger.

They kissed fiercely, desperately, their hands roving over each other's bodies, but when Rodney started groping lower, John pulled away. "Wait, wait."

"Wait?" Rodney asked incredulously. "_Wait?_"

"I'm sorry," John said, rubbing his face. "I'm sorry. It's just," he let out all of the air in his lungs in a gust. "Teyla and Ronon broke up. And Teyla's been invited to become an Athosian."

Rodney's eyebrows furrowed. "What does that mean?"

"That she can vote in, uh, something." John shrugged. "I'm not entirely sure. Probably that she'll spend more time on the mainland." Which was a really depressing thought. He sighed.

Rodney sighed too, looking mournfully at his slowly wilting erection before asking, "Do you want to stop it? Because I could probably--"

"No," John said quickly. He really didn't want to hear this plan, not the least because it might be too tempting to turn down. "She really wants this. I think it'll make her happy."

"What about you?"

"If she's happy, then I'm happy," John said firmly.

"Really?" Rodney asked wistfully. "You promise?"

John mentally kicked himself for being such an asshole for the last few weeks. "You make me happy," he said softly. Rodney snorted and started to shake his head, but John gripped his shoulders and held him still. "I mean it, Rodney. You make me happy. I know I don't say it often enough, but I love you and you make me happy."

Rodney stared for a few seconds then hastily rubbed his eyes and sniffed a little. "You make me happy, too," he muttered, and buried his face in John's chest. John smiled and held Rodney a little closer.

ooo

The next day when Ronon showed up to take John on their run, John suggested that they have a talk instead. Ronon looked like he'd rather have all of his teeth extracted without anesthesia, but he nodded and followed John to the nearest transporter.

John took them to one of the farthest points in the city, at the top of one of the corner towers. It wasn't quite as good as the spot he and Chaya had picnicked at, but that balcony had been ruined for him for life. This one was good enough. "So," he started. "I talked to Teyla,"

Ronon grunted. It sounded like his 'this is bad news, isn't it?' grunt. Appropriate, under the circumstances. "She's decided to become an Athosian." Ronon grunted his 'are you fucking shitting me?' grunt. "Yeah, well...yeah. But, hey, at least she's not dating that guy Halling." Ronon didn't even have a grunt for that. John sighed. "Sorry, big guy."

"So it's over," Ronon said flatly.

"Yeah, I'm afraid so."

Ronon nodded and climbed to his feet. "I have to go on a mission."

"Really? I hadn't heard anything was in the works."

Ronon's eyes just narrowed and he stomped off. John hoped no one got kidnapped over the next few days, because he wouldn't put odds on the _planet_ surviving, much less the captors.

After his somewhat (but mostly not) successful talk with Ronon, John decided to try the labs. He doubted anyone would be giving him the cold shoulder today, but if they did he was looking forward to Rodney's reaction. Besides, he missed Miko; he'd barely seen her since his banishment the previous week.

Unfortunately, neither Miko nor Rodney was in the labs. Neither was Radek, which was kind of scary. John couldn't remember a time when all three of them were missing at the same time.

Since he still wasn't sure of his reception by the majority of the lab staff, John was about to leave when a disturbingly familiar head of shaggy dark blond hair caught his eye. He debated leaving anyway, but he wanted information and MacGyver had at least been civil to him the one and only time they'd spoken. Decision made, he strolled over as casually as he could. "Hey."

MacGyver looked up from some gadget he was fiddling with. It looked like some bizarre hybrid of human and Ancient technology and maybe it was good Rodney wasn't here after all because one look at this monstrosity would no doubt send him into an apoplectic fit. "You're back," MacGyver said, turning back to his toy. "Does this mean the feud is over?"

"Uh, yeah," John said and technically it was true. Hopefully Rodney had already begun spreading the word.

"Happy to hear it. Though I was just starting to have fun." MacGyver tightened one last screw and flipped the toy over. "Okay, let's see what this baby can do." He flipped a switch. Nothing happened. He frowned. "Damn."

"What's it supposed to do?" John asked, curious despite himself.

"Honestly, I'm not sure," MacGyver answered. "If I knew, I could fix it." He turned it back over and scowled at the toy's guts.

His interest in the toy waning fast now that he knew it wasn't working, John asked, "Do you know where everyone is?"

"Who's everyone?" MacGyver asked, glancing around the crowded lab.

John rolled his eyes. "Rodney. Miko. Radek."

"Oh. They're in McKay's office."

"Rodney has an office?" John asked, shocked. Damn. How had he missed that?

"Zelenka's usually the one using it. He's the one who does all the scheduling." MacGyver tightened another screw and turned the toy back over. Flipped the switch. Nothing happened. He sighed. "You wouldn't happen to have a paper clip, would you?"

"Sorry, no," John said. "I sort of have to go anyway." And find Rodney's office, though he didn't say that part out loud. MacGyver just waved at him vaguely and stared intently at his toy. John shook his head and wandered out.

In the end, he never did manage to find Rodney's office, since he ran into Miko in the hall just a few minutes later. "John!" she called out, her face split into a huge grin, and she shocked the hell out of him by running over to jump up in his arms.

"Miko?" he said tentatively, wondering if the Ancients had their own versions of pod people or if she had just been dabbling in equipment that gave her a completely different personality.

Before Miko had time to answer, Rodney rounded a corner and called, "Don't think this means you get to slack off, Dr. Sheppard. You've got one hour for lunch and then I expect you back in the lab."

"Dr. Sheppard?" John repeated. He pushed Miko just far enough away that he could look her in the eye. "_Dr._ Sheppard?"

She nodded rapidly, clearly just barely restraining herself from bouncing with joy. John grinned at her and pulled her back into a crushing hug. "Congrats, sis!" Placing his mouth near her ear, he added, "You're amazing, you know that?"

"Thanks, John," she murmured back, holding him even tighter. He just laughed and lifted her up and twirled them both around several times.

Then they ran off to the infirmary to tell Carson.

By the time they'd tracked everyone down (except Ronon, who had managed to talk someone into letting him go to PXM-4389 to hunt the indigenous wildlife, which was a lot like cattle only with razor sharp teeth and really nasty dispositions), Miko's lunch hour had long since passed and John would have placed a bet against her going to work at all that day. Well, at least until the intercom speaker in Miko's room (where they had all ended up, despite the fact that it meant at least one person had to sit on the floor and Laura ended up on Carson's lap) boomed, "Dr. Sheppard, despite what you may have heard from Kavanaugh, Ancient technology does not fix itself. If you aren't in this lab in ten minutes, I will have you repairing the waste filtering system for the next year." The speaker squealed and cut off.

"You know," Laura said thoughtfully. "That was almost civil for McKay. I think you're softening him up, John."

"I think they're switching personalities," Aiden chipped in. "John's gotten way snippier since he started dating Rodney."

"I should go," Miko said, before John could come up with a suitably Rodney-esque reply. She was back to her usual restrained self, but she was glowing so brightly John wouldn't be surprised to learn she could be seen from orbit. "Thank you for this, everyone. I've missed spending time together."

"As have we," Teyla said gently, giving Miko an Athosian hug. It was almost identical to the one she'd used on Earth, which John found kind of freaky, but he knew better than to say anything out loud. "Congratulations, Miko."

The rest of the Sheppard clan chorused their own well wishes and Miko treated them all to a small smile before hurrying out.

The second the door shut, Laura stood up. "So, when do you guys want to have the party?"

Teyla stood up as well. "Before you start planning, I have an announcement of my own." In her calm voice, she told everyone about her plans to join the Athosians. As she spoke, the wide smiles of her brothers and sisters slowly faded away and when she finished the entire room was filled with stunned silence for several seconds.

Laura spoke first. "Hell, Teyla. How are we supposed to throw a surprise party for you now?"

John laughed along with everyone else and for the first time in ages, all was right in his world.

ooo

After a bit of debate, they decided to have the party in a week, which would give them time to get some supplies together. Originally it was just going to be a Sheppard family affair with a few special guests, such as Rodney, and Laura and Aiden's teammates. However, when they ran the idea past Elizabeth (at Teyla's suggestion), they had a bit of a surprise. "What a lovely idea," Elizabeth had said and John and Carson had exchanged baffled looks. Teyla just smiled serenely. "I think we could all use a break. Talk with Peter to work out the details."

Which was how the Sheppard party turned into the Atlantis party. It was pushed back another week and most of the Marines not on off-world teams found themselves scouting out potential ballrooms and/or checking out uninhabited planets for meat that, preferably, didn't bite back. Aiden was put in charge of the lights and music (Laura assisting, with firm instructions not to blow anything up); Carson handled the food (since they couldn't very well ask Miko to cater her own party); Teyla borrowed a gate team and went negotiating for supplies; and John was in charge of room setup, which meant he first had to track down tables, chairs, table clothes, plates, and cutlery, and then had to figure out how to lay them out to get the most out of the room they finally ended up choosing. The room was a large one about a hundred yards down from the mess hall, open and airy, with several large windows and a balcony that ran the entire length of the outside wall. John took one at the vast space and went scouting for friendly botanists who might be convinced to let him borrow some plants for the night.

Most importantly, the plan was to keep the party a secret from Miko. John enlisted Rodney's reluctant assistance ("this is a scientific lab, not a ten-year-old's birthday party"), though he suspected that Radek did all of the actual work in keeping Miko so busy for the next two weeks that she barely had time to sleep, much less be curious about the unusual level of activity among the Marines. John wasn't sure how well the subterfuge was working, but at least they'd tried.

By the day of the party, the entire city was humming with anticipation and John had been caught up in the excitement. The ballroom was perfect, if he did say so himself: lush green plants were carefully arranged in the area next to the floor to ceiling windows to create little nooks where couples or groups could sit around small tables in relative privacy while still enjoying Atlantis's remarkable view; the center of the room was open for people who wanted to dance; and the wall closest to the kitchen was lined with tables that would be used for the buffet (the distance from the ballroom to the kitchen wasn't ideal, but John figured you couldn't have everything). On the far wall from the door was a small stage where Aiden could sit; he was playing DJ for the night and had wired the entire room to play off of a laptop that Radek had donated to the cause. Laura had been in charge of collecting music that folks had brought with them; considering the computer-savvy nature of most of the expedition, it wasn't surprising that she'd come up with an impressive number of songs. Whether they were any good to listen to was still to be decided.

The tables and chairs hadn't been as hard to find as John had anticipated. Table clothes, on the other hand, had been a different matter. He ended up using sheets; though, thanks to Teyla's connections with some Athosian seamstresses, at least the sheets had some decorative embroidering to make them look a little more festive. Plates had been another challenge and he'd almost resigned himself to using the utilitarian dishware that the SGC had sent with them when he'd stumbled across a warehouse-sized storeroom full of lovely metallic silver and blue dishes and cutlery. After a second of surprise, he realized that it only made sense -- no one thought the Ancients had eaten right off the tables. Unfortunately the Ancients apparently hadn't used anything like forks, but there were plenty of large, oddly-shaped spoons and razor sharp knives and, besides, most of the food for the party was finger food (along with Miko's famous gumbo). Running one finger along the delicate edge of a bowl, John decided that the lack of forks was more than compensated for by the elegance of the plate.

The food itself was an amazing accomplishment. The mess sergeant and staff had worked with Carson to produce a variety of food that would have made Atlantis Catering proud, even if most of it had been made with alien or reconstituted foods. The main dish was the gumbo, which (since they'd run out of dehydrated onions and bell peppers) was now made entirely with Pegasus Galaxy foods. It still smelled wonderful and, when John snuck a small sample, tasted as good as before, if not better.

To go along with the gumbo was cornbread (one of the few recipes John had managed to weasel out of Jonas) and an interesting focaccia that didn't exactly go with gumbo, but which tasted great with the pestos the cooks had made from Miko's recipes. There were also meatballs (thanks to Ronon's tireless efforts on PXM-4389), mini meat pies, mini quiches (that actually tasted better since they'd run out of powdered eggs and were using a Pegasus galaxy variety), deviled eggs (another Miko recipe), assorted fruit for the health-conscious, and a whole table just of desserts including fruit tarts, cookies, puddings, and even a flourless cake (Carson's contribution). It was by far the best meal that had ever graced the tables of Atlantis and John spent a lot of time glaring at Marines who were eyeing with treats with increasing impatience.

Finally everything was laid out and Teyla had been sent out to collect Miko. At John's nod, Laura fiddled with a homemade light switch on the wall and suddenly the bright, almost florescent lights of Atlantis faded, replaced by hundreds of tiny white lights that almost looked like they belonged on a Christmas tree. John stared in amazement; he'd known Aiden was talented, but he'd never realized just _how_ talented.

Of course, as soon as the lights dimmed, the Marines and a few scientists had rushed the table. Fortunately, John had thought to place Ronon on guard and after a bit of growling the crowds moved back a couple of steps. John was pleased to see the carefully arranged trays were undisturbed. Still, it was a good thing that Miko showed up just a couple of minutes later. Even Ronon wasn't enough to keep away a ravening and well-armed hoard single-handedly.

Miko made a good attempt at looking surprised, though she didn't fool John. However, her deep pleasure was evident and her eyes were bright as she took in the array of food and careful decorations and she shared a quick smile at John before she began to mingle.

Elizabeth, ever the diplomat, gave everyone enough time to fill their plate before climbing up on the stage. A spotlight appeared from somewhere, far superior to anything found on Earth. It made her look ethereal, like she was glowing from within. "Hello, everyone. I won't be too long, because I'm sure you're all ready to dance." Judging from the looks of horror that the scientists were giving each other, that point was very much in debate. "However, I do want to take a few minutes to talk about the two remarkable women who are the cause for today's celebration. Miko Sheppard, Teyla Sheppard, could you come to the stage, please?"

Moving with a grace and assurance that John could only envy (he would be tripping over his own feet if someone had asked him to stand up in front of a crowd of this size), Miko and Teyla joined Elizabeth on the small stage. Elizabeth smiled at each of them. "First, I want to wish deep and heartfelt congratulations to Miko Sheppard, who has just earned her doctorate. She defended her thesis to Drs. McKay and Zelenka, and both of them praised her quick thinking, her sharp intelligence, and her exemplary work ethic."

John heard a small snort and glanced over to see that Rodney had finally appeared, a heaping plate in hand. "Is she being diplomatic?" John murmured.

"Very," Rodney answered, but when he looked at Miko his eyes were soft and full of pride. John knew he was smiling sappily at the both of them, but he couldn't seem to stop. Hopefully no one else would be able to tell in the dim lighting.

Elizabeth turned to Miko and held out her hand. "Dr. Sheppard, I congratulate you." Miko took the hand and answered with a simple thank you and stepped off the stage. John grinned.

Now it was just Elizabeth and Teyla and the smile Elizabeth gave Teyla was much more genuine than the polite diplomat's smile she'd used for Miko. "As most of you know, in the time she has spent on Atlantis Teyla Sheppard has become one of our top diplomats."

John _hadn't_ known that, and he felt a surge of regret. He'd let a lot of things slide while immersing himself in self-pity, but allowing himself to drift from his family was the most inexcusable. No more. He would never have a better chance than now to spend time with his wonderful family; it was time to make the most of the opportunity.

"Thanks to Teyla's negotiating skills, we not only have trading partners on over a dozen planets, but we have formed a mutually advantageous relationship with the Athosians." John smiled at his sister, stuffed to the gills with pride. He always knew she was special; it was nice to see that other people were recognizing it as well.

"What you may not know is that the Athosians recently offered to make Teyla a part of their tribe and she has accepted." Elizabeth smiled at Teyla. "I believe the ritual will take place next week, but we decided to celebrate a bit early. Teyla, congratulations for all of your achievements and thank you for the great things you've done for Atlantis." Teyla got a hug, rather than a handshake, and she nodded her thanks to the applauding crowd.

Then the spotlight went out and there was a stampede towards the remaining food. Rodney, of course, led the way.

John headed in the opposite direction, to where Miko and Teyla were surrounded by Sheppards. "Well, I'm impressed," he told them with a grin. Ronon punched him in the arm on the girls' behalf.

"This is a wonderful party, John," Miko said. "Thank you."

"Don't thank me, it was a team effort. And Laura's idea."

Which of course set off a whole round of 'no _he's_ the most awesome brother, no _she's_ the most awesome sister' and John tuned out the words to better soak in the sight of his family laughing and playing and generally acting happier than they had since their parents died. The sheer joy rose up in him higher and higher until he couldn't help himself, he just _had_ to have a group hug.

Damn, the Sheppards gave great hugs.

They were still hugging when a voice came from outside the group. "Okay, as disturbingly adorable as this is, you're starting to freak out the natives. And by 'the natives', of course I mean 'me'."

John lifted his head and smiled at Rodney. "You could always join in."

Rodney looked horrified. "No! No, I'll just...be over there." He pointed to the other side of the room. "Next to the meatballs." He hurried away.

"I guess we do have to mingle," John said when they were alone again. "And Aiden probably needs to get started on the music."

"Yeah," Aiden said stepping back quickly. "Before one of the scientists takes over, 'cause their music is kind of scary." He hopped up to the stage and grabbed the headphones just before Wallenstein could get his hands on them.

Left behind, the rest of the Sheppard family dispersed. Most went into the crowd, but Ronon made a beeline for the door. John watched him go with a sigh, but there wasn't much he could do. The only cure for a broken heart was time.

And maybe a new love. John glanced over at Rodney, who was scarfing down meatballs as promised, and smiled. Things were still a little awkward between the two of them -- with John so busy with the party and Rodney so swamped in the lab, they hadn't had much time for conversation or even the much-needed make-up sex -- but John was hoping to change that soon. Maybe even tonight. With that in mind, he wandered over to his boyfriend and whispered in his ear, "Wanna dance?"

Rodney ate another meatball and eyed the dance floor. "Do we have to?"

"Yes," John said firmly.

Rodney shoved one last meatball in his mouth. "Okay. But you lead."

John narrowed his eyes. "That was easy."

Rodney flushed lightly and muttered something under his breath.

"What's that?" John asked

"I said," Rodney said with a huff. "I'm hoping to get laid."

"Oh, what a coincidence," John said. "So am I."

"Really? Great!" Rodney said, bouncing on his feet. "Let's go!"

John managed to keep from chuckling, just. "No. I'm not leaving my sisters' party the minute it starts getting interesting."

"But...but...how interesting can it be?" Rodney asked, sounding distinctly dismayed. "I mean, we haven't had sex in weeks!"

John's eyes widened and he glanced around to see several people smirking. Gritting his teeth, John grabbed Rodney's arm and pulled him out onto the dance floor. "You remember that talk Radek gave you about your inside voice and your outside voice?" he hissed as he started to dance. "That was your outside voice."

Rodney rolled his eyes. "Please. These people gossip more than little old ladies at a knitting circle. They've got pools going on how long it's been since we last had sex."

Over Rodney's shoulder, John saw a Marine flush deep red and quickly hustle his partner to the other side of the dance floor. John groaned. "How accurate are the pools?"

"Surprisingly so," Rodney said thoughtfully. "Especially since they're working with hours, rather than days. I've heard one person is within five minutes of the actual time, but that might just have been a rumor."

"And just how, exactly, do you know so much about this pool?"

Rodney stayed silent.

John raised his eyebrows. "Are you _betting_ in the pool?"

"No! Of course not! Besides, Radek figured out which name I was bidding under and kicked me out."

John groaned. "You are a sick, sick man, Rodney McKay."

"Thank you," Rodney said brightly.

They managed to hold out for a couple of hours, until the crowds had started to thin a little and the buffet table looked like it had been attacked by a swarm of locusts, but when Rodney whined for the tenth time, "Can we go yet?" John caved.

"Sure. Just let me say goodbye to Teyla and Miko."

Rodney rolled his eyes. "You live three doors away. Can't you just leave a note on their door?" John glared at him. "Oh fine," Rodney snapped. "I'll go warm up the lube."

John shuddered as he was hit with a wave of lust. "Yeah," he said thickly. "You do that. I'll be right behind you."

Rodney smirked and walked away with a definite sway to his hips. It looked ridiculous on him, but John was too far gone to care. He hurried through his goodbyes and was out the door within five minutes.

Seven minutes after that, he was at the room. He walked inside to find Rodney already naked and under the covers, a tube of lube in one hand and a condom in the other. "Well, what are you waiting for?" Rodney snapped. "Get undressed."

John stripped in record time. "I want it hard and fast," he said as he crawled into the bed.

Rodney nodded sharply. "Hands and knees," he ordered and John felt a wave of lust. God, but it had been too damn long.

The preparation was perfunctory, two fingers thrust in quickly and scissored for a few seconds. Just long enough to be sure that John wouldn't tear. "Okay, okay," John panted, resting his head against his forearms. "I'm ready."

For once, Rodney didn't argue and John felt the blunt cockhead at his anus a fraction of a second before Rodney pushed in in one long, smooth thrust. "Oh, yeah," John groaned.

"Keep talking," Rodney commanded as he pulled nearly all the way out and thrust back in. "Don't stop talking."

So John talked, though he couldn't have said from second to second exactly what he was talking about and it was probably just a stream of babble. It didn't matter though as all he could feel and care about were the powerful thrusts that were shoving him forward in the bed, almost brutal in their strength and so intense that John was sobbing from the sensation and the barest touch of Rodney's fingers on John's cock were enough to make him come.

A few moments later Rodney came as well, and collapsed on top of John, carrying them both to the bed.

Several minutes later, Rodney started to move, but John reached back and held him in place. "No."

"Are you sure?" Rodney asked, even as he settled back down, his cock still resting inside John's body. "You'll be sore tomorrow."

John was going to be sore tomorrow whether or not Rodney pulled out now, but he didn't bother explaining that to Rodney. Nor did he try to explain his desperate need for this connection of Rodney being physically inside him. Instead, he said, "It's worth it," and when Rodney hummed softly and wrapped John in his arms, John knew that he had been understood.

ooo

"Come on, it'll be fun," John wheedled from the side of Carson's broken down (again) scanner.

Rodney grabbed a screwdriver and started removing the panel. "How, exactly, do you define fun?"

"Dancing, music, food, sex under the stars?" John offered hopefully.

Rodney snorted. "Outdoor sex? Highly overrated."

"We could do it in a yurt then. How many people can say they've done it in a yurt?"

"If the number is greater than zero, then too many." Rodney buried his head into the panel. "Nice try, John. Have fun eating healthy, all-natural food and dancing around the bonfire. I'll see you when you get back."

John grumbled under his breath, but it wasn't like he'd actually thought he'd be able to talk Rodney into it. Still, he'd been hopeful. "I'll see you tomorrow," he said, when it was obvious that Rodney was just ignoring the grumbling. "Don't stay up too late."

"Yes, mom," Rodney said from inside the scanner. John was just about to leave when Rodney abruptly slid back out and clambered to his feet. "Wait, before you go--" He reached out and pulled John into a deep kiss.

Carson, who'd just walked into the infirmary, shook his head and walked right back out.

They continued kissing until the need for air became imperative, then reluctantly separated. "Come back soon," Rodney murmured.

"Sure you don't want to come?"

Rodney rolled his eyes and stepped back. "Dirt, yurt, health food. I don't love you _that_ much."

"Sure you do," John said with a smirk and hurried away before Rodney could sneak in the last word.

ooo

The party was...something. When John had first heard about it, he'd thought it would be similar to the bonfires he'd had in high school. Instead there were a lot of speeches and chanting. Probably for the best that Rodney hadn't come.

After the rituals, however, things picked up. The Athosians had found a plentiful local fruit with a high sugar content, which meant homemade wine flowed freely and soon people were dancing around the fire with a gleeful abandon that John envied. He didn't have much interest in dancing himself, but he enjoyed sitting on the sidelines and watching folks have fun, especially as the night went on and inhibitions started to lower. Between the skimpy clothing that was the Athosian norm, the fact that most of the Athosians were disgustingly hot, and the increasingly seductive dances, John was starting to feel like he was watching soft-core porn. It was kind of entertaining, as long as he kept his eyes averted from Aiden, Laura, and Teyla, all of whom were throwing themselves into the festivities. Carson had already been dragged off by a pretty Athosian woman and Ronon was gone as well. Apparently some folks were getting lucky tonight. Including MacGyver, who'd played pilot for the evening and who had cheerfully accepted the invitation to spend the night. He hadn't had much of the wine, but that hadn't stopped him from wandering off with a lovely brunette wearing a halter top and a mini-skirt.

In fact, the only person besides John who didn't seem to be throwing herself into the festivities was Miko. John glanced around to find Miko sitting in the shadows under one of the nearby trees; he frowned at the sight and wandered over for a little heart-to-heart. "Hey," he said, dropping down next to her. "Having fun?"

"Yes," she said, convincingly enough unless you happened to have spent the last fifteen years living with her.

"Miko," John said, drawing her name out.

She sighed and played with the mostly full cup in her hands. "I'd rather be in the labs," she admitted. "I'd just started simulations on what might be the Ancient equivalent of a battery charger and the results should be ready now."

"Wow," John said, impressed. "Does that mean you could recharge the ZPM?"

"No, it's not that powerful. But I might be able to recharge Rodney's personal shield."

"Huh," John said. "That could be cool. But, you know, it'll still be there tomorrow. No reason why you can't have fun tonight." He nodded at a tall, well-muscled, exceedingly hot Athosian man on the other side of the fire. "That guy's been eyeing you all night."

"John," Miko said patiently. "I'm gay."

John blinked. "Really? I thought you were bi."

"Yes, well, I thought so, too, until I tried having sex with a man." Miko set her cup aside and pulled her knees to her chest.

John's eyes narrowed dangerously. "What happened? Did he hurt you? Who was he?"

Miko shook her head. "It wasn't his fault."

"But--"

"No. John. It wasn't his fault." Miko sighed. "It was mine. I wasn't particularly attracted to him, but I wanted to know what it was like. And now I do."

John thought about pushing further, but a look at Miko's drawn features changed his mind. He knew enough, anyway -- unless Miko had been deliberately trying to convince John otherwise by dating one of the male students in her graduate class, she had been bi until she came to Atlantis, which meant it was someone in the city who had hurt her. Between himself, Rodney, and Ronon, John would figure out who the culprit was and explain to him exactly why it wasn't a good idea to fuck with a Sheppard.

For now, he just wrapped an arm around Miko's shoulders and pulled her close. "You can keep me company then," he said. "Since Rodney abandoned me."

Miko snorted softly. "Did you really expect him to come?"

"I'd hoped," John said. "Silly of me, huh."

"No," she answered quietly. "If you'd really wanted it, he would have come."

John smiled gently. "Yeah, I know," he answered, just as quietly, and he held his sister tight as they watched the dancers long into the night.

ooo

The next morning John and Miko worked together to roust and corral their hungover, worn-out siblings and get them on the gateship. Even Ronon looked wiped out, and his breath smelled strongly of alcohol. John sent him a worried glance, but held his tongue. Hopefully this wouldn't be a problem, but if it did turn into one, there were better times and places to discuss it.

MacGyver, looking tired but very satisfied, took pity on the wretched state of most of the Sheppards and took the ship up into orbit and dimmed the lights of the cabin. In the resultant darkness, nearly everyone dropped off, leaving MacGyver, John, and Miko to chat up front.

John was marveling at the fact that he was currently _in space_ and coming up with discreet ways to start poking into MacGyver's past again (really, his resemblance to Jack was downright freaky) when Miko pointed over John's shoulder and asked, "What is that?"

John followed her finger and his eyes widened. "Looks like a hurricane. Or two."

"I think they're combining," Miko said.

"We need to get back to Atlantis," MacGyver said grimly, and he immediately put the gateship into a deep dive. John gripped the armrests of his chair, which was silly since he couldn't feel the difference in angle and speed. Still, the water and clouds rushing up to meet him were pretty fucking scary and he had to fight not to close his eyes. It was hard to believe people did shit like this for _fun_

As they flew in, MacGyver reported what he was seeing and as soon as they landed he and Miko were whisked off to meet with Elizabeth. John watched them go, then sighed and focused on the unpleasant task of getting his siblings out of the ship and back to their rooms. It took a long time (though not as long as it might have if Aiden and Laura's gate teams hadn't shown up to help -- John really was going to have to make an effort to learn their names) and by the time he'd wrestled Ronon into his room the city was abuzz with nervous tension.

Curious, John went to track down Rodney to find out what he'd missed. He found him in the labs. "Rodney? What's going on?"

"Oh, John, there you are. Good." Rodney typed furiously on his laptop and added, "We're evacuating the city."

"_What?_"

"It's the storm," Rodney said, his attention still focused on his typing. "Without the shields it could take out Atlantis."

John considered the prospect of living at the Athosian level of technology on some random planet for the rest of his life and winced. "But you know how to fix it, right? You're not going to let the city be destroyed."

"I have an idea," Rodney answered, finally turning to face John. "But we don't have time to test all the variables, so we're evacuating everyone just to be safe." He took a deep breath and added, "I'm going to need your help with the shields, if you're willing to stay."

"Of course," John said instantly. "Hell, if you're staying I'm staying, but I'm not sure how much help I can be."

"It's just in case we need a strong gene," Rodney answered. "MacGyver's ferrying Athosians from the mainland and Miko's coordinating the evacuation plans. Besides," and here he took a deep breath, looking nervous, "she said you're a faster runner than she is."

John stared. "There's going to be running?"

"There might be," Rodney said tightly. "Hopefully not, since I've had more important things to in my life than marathon train to outrun lightning storms, but it's possible."

"Hm," was all John said. He didn't think it was a good idea to point out that he wasn't about to leave Rodney behind if he couldn't keep up.

"I'm staying, too," a low, growling voice came from the door. John and Rodney looked over to see Ronon standing a few feet away, looking determined (if still hungover). "Miko said you needed a third person."

Rodney frowned thoughtfully. "That's not a bad idea. Elizabeth or Ellison was going to do it, but it's idiotic to risk two of the top three in the chain of command if there's any alternative."

"And Ronon runs faster than I do," John added helpfully. Plus, if it came down to physically hauling Rodney through the corridors of Atlantis, Ronon was going to be way more helpful than Elizabeth.

"Yes, yes, fine. Ronon, you're going to have to do exactly what I say. If you can't do that, don't bother to stay behind."

"I can do that," Ronon answered gruffly.

Rodney nodded. "For now we need to get everyone off Atlantis and I need to finish this program. Ronon, go help with the evacuations. John, tell Elizabeth that she needs to go too. Don't come back till everyone is clear."

Ronon nodded, more sharply than might be expected considering how crappy he looked, and left. John hung back a second. "Are you going to be okay?" he asked Rodney.

"I will be if I'm not interrupted," Rodney snapped back. "Lock the door on your way out."

John winced, but he told himself that Rodney was under a hell of a lot of pressure. Besides, hoping for Rodney to suddenly turn charming was about as useful as hoping for ZPMs to start raining out of the sky and John had entered this relationship with his eyes wide open, so all he said was, "Be careful," as he left.

Rodney just grunted and kept on typing.

The control room was a study in barely controlled chaos and John had to fight through crowds of people to get to Elizabeth. "John?" she asked once he managed to get her attention. "What is it?"

"I have a message from Rodney," he said. "Ronon is going to stay behind so you don't have to."

Elizabeth's lips tightened and for a moment John thought she was going to refuse, but in the end she nodded. "Is Rodney on schedule? Will he be able to make the shields work?"

"I think so," John said. _I hope so_, he added silently.

"Good. We're on schedule with the evacuations. Once the last of the Athosians come in, we'll be finished." She frowned thoughtfully. "Has anyone taught you how to dial the Atlantis gate?"

"No," John said, eyeing her oddly and wondering exactly when she thought he might have had a reason for lessons.

"It's time you learned then," she answered. She pointed to a handsome brunet who was staring intently at a computer screen on the other side of the gate room. "Have Chuck show you, then go see if Rodney needs any help."

"Yes, ma'am," John said. It was a good thing he'd gotten a lot of practice taking orders from his sisters over the years, because otherwise all of this commanding might have been a bit chafing.

Chuck turned out to be a friendly Canadian (i.e., the exact opposite of the only other Canadian John knew) and the dialing program was pretty self-explanatory, so it didn't take John long to learn what he needed to know. Working on the assumption that if it was good for one person to know how to do something, then it was even better if two knew, John swapped out with Ronon and helped out with the evacuation while Ronon got a quick tutorial from Chuck. He kept at it even when Ronon came back because, if push came to shove, John would rather have Elizabeth mad at him than Rodney.

By the time they got everyone off of Atlantis, rain was sheeting down against the windows, pounding so loud that he and Ronon had to shout to each other to be heard. John figured the lightning couldn't be too far behind, and he headed for Rodney's lab at a flat run, Ronon matching his pace easily.

"Where have you been?" Rodney snapped as soon as they entered the lab. "I've had time to _type up instructions_ since you've been gone. Though, admittedly, there isn't much in the way of instructions. Amazing how the Ancients could make a toaster ridiculously complicated, but when it comes down to _disabling their grounding stations_ they set it up so it could be done by a five year old."

John rolled his eyes. "Good, then that'll make things easier." He grabbed a sheet off of the printer, glanced at it, and handed it to Ronon. "Where does he need to go?"

"Excuse me, but who's in charge here?" Rodney asked crossing his arms.

"You are," John retorted. "So tell him where to go already."

Rodney scowled, but it wasn't like he could argue with that logic. John smothered a smirk as Rodney pointed to a map of Atlantis that was on the wall near the door. "You're in charge of grounding stations three and four on the other side of the city, here and here. You won't be able to use the transporters because we had to take them offline for the storm. Can you make it?"

Ronon grunted and took off running. "Wait," Rodney called. "You didn't answer." Ronon kept on running. Rodney huffed and turned to John. "Can he make it?"

"Don't worry, he'll do fine," John answered. "What about me? What do I need to do?"

Rodney shot one more glower at Ronon's departing back, then picked up a bag of tools. "Come on, we're doing stations one and two."

John stared out the window at the lashing rain and whimpered, but followed Rodney out into the hallway and went to the nearest outside exit to brave the storm.

They finished the first grounding station without difficulty and were just putting the final touches on the second one when John's radio flickered on for a second, just long enough for him to hear Ronon's voice in his ear: "We're not alone."

A moment later a mocking voice rang out over the sound of the rain. "Rodney McKay and John Sheppard. We meet again."

John frozen as a bolt of terror slid up his spine. He knew that voice. He heard it in the nightmares he still had nearly a year since the kidnapping.

Slowly, willing it all to be some horrible sort of dream, John turned around. He swallowed hard. It wasn't a dream.

Next to him, Rodney hissed. "Kolya."

The evil bastard smiled. "So, you remember me, McKay. Delighted to hear it. This will make things much easier."

"What are you _doing_ here?" McKay asked. "How the hell did you get here in the first place?"

Kolya shook his head. "Your SGC always did underestimate my employers."

"What, the Genii Corporation?" John asked in disbelief. Not that Teyla and Ronon weren't amazing, but it was hard to be impressed by an evil organization that had been brought down by two bodyguards armed with rubber bullets.

"No," Rodney said quietly. "The Trust. They're the only Earth-based organization besides the SGC with a working stargate. Genii must have been a front for them."

"I'm impressed, Dr. McKay," Kolya said, looking anything but.

"Where did you get the ZPM from?" John asked, now kind of disappointed in the SGC. He still wasn't quite sure who this Trust was, but surely the US government _and_ the IOA should be more than capable of holding its own against a private super-evil organization. Which brought to mind fat men wearing overblown jewelry and petting fluffy white cats and John clung to that image. Better than remembering how it had felt when he'd been tied up, beaten, and left to listen as his own dripping blood puddled on a dirty linoleum floor.

"We have our sources." John had the idea that Kolya would have smirked, if that ugly face had been capable of making the expression.

"And a complete lack of scruples," Rodney said flatly. "What do you want, anyway?"

"What we've always wanted -- Atlantis. Though we might change the name to something more suitable," he added with a sneer.

Rodney crossed his arms. "Good luck with that, seeing as this storm is about to destroy the city. Why do you think we evacuated?"

"Do not underestimate me, McKay," Kolya said, all pretence at humor gone. "I know you have a plan in place to save the city and I trust you'll tell me what the plan is."

"Not going to happen," Rodney said flatly.

Kolya pulled out a long, ugly looking knife and Rodney was suddenly pasty white. "Oh, I think you will."

John's heart felt like it was about to pound its way right out of his chest, but the look of sheer horror on Rodney's face was even worse. Gritting his teeth, John stepped in front of Rodney. "You're not going to touch him," he growled.

Kolya smiled again, but before he could answer, a very familiar red head came trotting out. "Sora?" John breathed.

"Hello, John," she said. "I heard you did a great job catering Pegasus Lab events after I left. Congratulations." She glanced over his shoulder and her expression soured. "Dr. McKay. Break any more assistants after you fired me?"

"That's why you sold Pegasus out to Genii?" Rodney answered incredulously. "Because I was _mean_ to you? I'm mean to everyone!"

"No, that wasn't why," Sora said with a shrug. "It just made it easier."

"Enough chatting," Kolya said flatly. "Sora, why are you here?"

"We've finished the sweep of the city," she answered, suddenly all business. "It's clear. These are the only two left."

John carefully kept his face neutral.

"Good," Kolya answered. "Who is closest to the stargate?"

"Jamison and Wilcox."

Kolya nodded. "Round up everyone else and have them meet in the gate room."

"Yes, sir," she said with a quick salute and trotted off.

Kolya pulled out a communicator and John noted with a sneering pride that it wasn't nearly as nice as Atlantis's communicators. "Jamison, Wilcox, come in."

Silence.

"Jamison. Wilcox. Come in."

Still nothing. Kolya scowled and turned on John and Rodney. "Who else is here? Where are my men?"

John raised his chin. "No one," he lied.

"You're lying," Kolya said flatly. He strode over until he was looming over John and John couldn't help but lean back against Rodney, though he forced himself to keep his eyes locked defiantly on Kolya's. Kolya didn't look impressed as he reached out and tore John's communicator free, nearly taking off John's ear in the process.

Clipping the communicator to his own ear, Kolya said, "Attention traitors of Earth. We have captured Rodney McKay and John Sheppard. Surrender yourself immediately or face the consequences."

No response. John gulped, but didn't say anything. Ronon knew what he was doing.

Kolya smiled a little. "Well, Dr. McKay, it appears you should have been nicer to your colleagues after all." He grabbed Rodney by the arm and jerked him forward. "Maybe your screams will soften their hearts."

"Wait!" John shouted, grabbing Rodney's other arm and pulling back. "You should take me instead." Frantically he tried to think like a crazy sociopath. "McKay's more valuable to you alive," John added. "He knows Atlantis better than anyone else on the mission."  
"_John_, what are you _saying_?" Rodney hissed. "Shut _up_."

"Ah, but you have the gene, Mr. Sheppard," Kolya said, ignoring Rodney's aside. "This city is worthless without someone to make it work."

John stared at Rodney, who was frantically shaking his head at him. _I'm sorry_, John mouthed, before turning back to Kolya. "Rodney has the gene, too."

Kolya looked unconvinced.

"Really! Look, if you know we have a plan to save the city, then you must have someone inside, right? So you know that Dr. B-- that we have a way to give people an artificial gene. Rodney's had the therapy."

Kolya scowled. "Only half the people who take the therapy have the gene."

"Rodney's one of them," John said desperately.

"What is _wrong_ with you?" Rodney nearly yelled. "Are you suicidal? Shut up!" His hands tightened into fists and he turned to Kolya. "Just do it, whatever it is. Get it over with."

And, strangely enough, of everything that had been said, _that_ was what caught Kolya's attention. "Self-sacrifice, McKay? How unlike you." He suddenly released Rodney's arm and since John had been pulling on Rodney's other arm, he and Rodney nearly fell to the ground. Kolya grabbed John's shirt, keeping him upright, while kicking Rodney's legs out from under him. Rodney crashed into the grounding station, hitting his head against the console in the process. He didn't get back up.

Kolya's grip moved from John's shirt to his neck and he spoke into the communicator again. "Earth traitors of Atlantis. You have made your position clear. Now let me clarify my own." He pulled out that big knife again. "We'll begin with John Sheppard."

Time blurred into a series of intolerable pains followed by brief respites where John merely endured agony. He tried not to scream, for Ronon's sake, but that resolution lasted less than a minute. Most of the time John couldn't even see what Kolya was doing with that knife, but he felt like he was being flayed alive.

Every few minutes, Kolya would stop and call out on the communicator again. Ronon never responded. Nor did any of Kolya's men when he tried calling them. That, of course, just angered the sick bastard even more, but even as John was nearly submerged under a fresh wave of pain, he managed to foster a tiny spark of satisfaction. No matter what this fucker did to John, Ronon was coming. All John had to do was hold out a little bit longer.

If only every second hadn't felt like a fucking hour.

John's vision was starting to grey out when Kolya stopped yet again. His first two attempts to raise his men on the radio produced nothing, and he scowled as he tried again. "Sora. Come in, Sora."

Nothing.

Kolya snarled and threw John away from him. John half-expected to crash into the grounding station as Rodney had, but a pair of drenched arms caught him instead and John barely managed to stifle a sob of relief. Rodney was alive. Whatever else happened here today, Rodney was still alive.

Kolya started ranting what was undoubtedly another endless stream of threats, but John barely noticed as a flash of movement on the other end of the pier caught his attention. It was faint, more a flicker of shadow than anything else, but John knew what he saw and he smiled.

"What's so funny?" Kolya asked suspiciously.

"Nothing," John said, shaking his head slightly and ignoring Rodney's hissed commands to shut up, already. "Just, I have this brother, Ronon, and there's something you should know about him." He lifted his head to look Kolya in the eye. "You never, ever fuck with his family."

The words were still in the air when Ronon took those last few steps, put a gun to the side of Kolya's head, and pulled the trigger.

The gunshot was loud, even in the pouring rain, and Kolya's body swayed for half a second before tumbling to the ground. Even though he'd had an idea of what was coming, John had never seen someone killed before, and between that and the pain he passed out. Just for a second. He came back to the sound of Rodney's frantic voice. "John? John, are you all right?"

"No," John croaked, even as he leaned back into Rodney's arms. He was most definitely _not_ all right.

"John, you have to get up," Rodney said, pulling on John's arm. "We have to get to the central chamber before the lightning hits. John!"

In the end, Ronon had to pick John up and toss him over his shoulder. It hurt like hell, but at this point John didn't have enough energy to give a shit. At least he didn't have to run himself.

They were nearly to the central chamber when Rodney decided to take his turn to fall apart. "Did you...hear him?" he asked between gasps. "He asked for..._reinforcements_....Do you...know what that...means?"

"He didn't want to run the city by himself?" John suggested, since Ronon didn't seem inclined to guess. The words came out kind of strained, since a fireman's hold wasn't particularly conducive to speech.

"No!" Rodney snapped, managing to use his 'you are the most idiotic idiot I've ever had to work with' voice even though he sounded half a second from collapse. John wished he could see something other than Ronon's back at the moment; he'd always loved the look that came with that voice. "They wouldn't waste...two ZedPMs...for a staggered...attack. They...must have...set up a...base camp...in the Pegasus...Galaxy."

They sprinted through the last door and into the central chamber and not a second too soon -- lightning flashed so bright that it lit up the room and the thunder that followed made John's eardrums bleed. Rodney had collapsed on the floor the moment they'd arrived and now he lifted his head. "Oh, good, we're not dead. Yay me." He dropped his head to the floor.

Ronon carefully dropped John down next to him. "Thanks," John told him.

Ronon grunted.

John turned his head in Rodney's direction. "So you're saying that not only do we have the Wraith to deal with, but now the Genii are in the Pegasus Galaxy, too?"

"Yes," Rodney said, and apparently he was more confident in his breathing, because he somehow found the energy to lift his head and glare at Ronon. "You! What happened to Kolya's reinforcements? Did you Rambo them all or did you get Sora before she could dial out?"

"I put up the iris," Ronon said flatly.

John's eyes widened. "While they were coming through?"

Ronon nodded.

"Holy shit," John breathed. "How many?"

"Maybe fifty," Ronon said with a shrug.

John frowned. Ronon was acting casually enough, but John didn't buy into that act for a second. "You okay?"

Ronon shrugged again, but before John could start nagging, Rodney cut in, "Did you see the address she dialed?"

"No," Ronon said. "But there were only seven symbols."

"See!" Rodney crowed. "A local address!"

"Shit," John said in reply. "We're fucked."

No one offered a word of disagreement.

ooo

The next couple of weeks sucked, as John found himself confined first to the infirmary and then to his room. It didn't help that every Sheppard on base found time to give him a stern talking-to about his propensity to get captured by psychotic terrorists. Teyla was especially upset, as this time she hadn't been around to help with the rescue.

Even worse, Laura seemed to think John's recovery was entirely dependent on how much gossip she dumped on him, and he found himself hearing more about Atlanteans' sex lives than he'd ever wanted to know.

On the plus side, Radek finally stopped sending John hate mail.

After the attack, Ronon's reputation went from awesome to legendary, and gate teams were lining up to recruit him. Ronon turned them all down, but he was less restrained when it came to the equally long list of people who wanted to sleep with him and he cut a wide swath through the population of Atlantis over the next few weeks. John was more than a little surprised at Ronon's behavior, but what was even more confusing was the fact that, as far as John could tell, Ronon was only taking women to his bed. Considering the fact Teyla and Ronon had usually dated men when they were dating as a pair, John had assumed Ronon was bi. Apparently not.

Despite his sudden popularity, Ronon did not distance himself away from his family. In fact, he started spending even more time with John than they had before: as soon as John was given a clean bill of health he and Ronon began to run together twice a day, and Ronon usually joined John and Rodney in the mess hall for breakfasts and lunch (Rodney spent most evenings working in the lab through dinnertime and, after the first few days, breakfasts were hit or miss as well). Rodney, who had always had a soft spot for Ronon, was somewhat less than thrilled when he found himself competing with that soft spot for first dibs on John's desserts.

A couple of weeks after the invasion, after all but the worst of his injuries had healed, John decided to take advantage of Ronon's near constant presence. "I want you to teach me to fight," he told Ronon in the mess hall one dinner. Rodney was still holed up in his lab; John would take him some food later.

"I'm already teaching you how to fight," Ronon said, swiping John's chocolate pudding.

"You're teaching me self-defense," John said, not that Ronon would ever admit that that's what he'd been doing. "I want you to teach me to do what you did to Kolya's men."

Ronon looked profoundly skeptical.

"I mean it," John protested. He took a deep breath. "Look, Ronon. I've been tortured twice in the last year. If it comes up again, I want to take a hell of a lot of fuckers out at the same time."

There was a long pause before Ronon finally answered, "Okay."

"Okay?" John beamed.

Ronon scowled, and swiped John's fruit cup as well.

ooo

One of the first priorities after the attack had, of course, been to figure out who Kolya's spy was, and John had a sneaking suspicion that Rodney's late nights had probably been spent working on that problem. Nearly a month after the attack, Rodney showed up in his and John's room before dinner time for the first time in weeks. John looked up sharply from his book (which frankly wasn't terribly interesting) and quickly got to his feet. "Christ, Rodney, you look awful," he said, and it was true: Rodney was white as a sheet, and his eyes were bloodshot.

Rodney just shook his head, took two quick steps forward, and buried his face in John's neck. John, starting to get seriously worried, wrapped his arms around Rodney and held him tight as he began to shake.

They held each other silently for several minutes before Rodney's trembling slowly came under control. "Are you okay?" John murmured.

"No, you idiot, I'm not," Rodney answered, but there was no fire in his voice. He rubbed his eyes against John's tee-shirt, leaving behind a damp spot. "We found him."

"Who?" John asked.

"Kolya's spy. We found him."

"Oh," John said, his stomach twisting up into a knot. "Oh." He bit his lip. "Can you tell me who it is?"

Rodney shrugged without letting go of John. "Everyone's going to know soon enough. JJ Lereaux. He's one of the marines."

John frowned. "I don't know him."

"No one does, apparently," Rodney answered. "He's not a gene carrier, so the scientists don't care about him, and he's not particularly friendly with the military."

More silence, which John found highly disturbing. Rodney was only quiet when he was really, really upset about something. Finally, though, John had to know. "What are they going to do to him?"

"We don't know yet. No one wants to waste resources locking him up indefinitely, but we can't really exile him off-world either. He knows too much about Atlantis."

"He's probably already told the Genii everything he knows."

"Maybe, but we can't take that risk," Rodney said. He sighed. "Ellison pointed out that treason is a capital offense."

John...didn't know what to say to that. Not that he was necessarily against the death penalty, but it didn't seem like a really good idea in such a small community. "What about the mainland?" John asked. "Or, didn't we find a stasis pod at some point? Were you able to get that working?"

Rodney leaned in to place a gentle kiss on John's lips. "I love it when you're smart."

John couldn't help it, he grinned back. "I'm guessing you already thought of that, though."

"Those are the two options currently on the table," Rodney admitted, tucking his chin back over John's shoulder. "Well, that or sending him to an uninhabited planet and disabling the DHD so that we can dial in, but he can't dial out."

"You mean, set up a penal colony. Like Australia."

"That's Elizabeth's favorite choice. That way if the Genii attack again, we have an option other than killing them. Personally, I'd rather we just let Ronon loose on any other invaders."

John wasn't sure what to say to that either, so he went back to the original topic. "Who's making the final call? Elizabeth?"

"Elizabeth, Ellison, and I will make the decision tomorrow. Elizabeth just wanted us to sleep on it first."

John smiled a little. With Rodney so caught up in catching the traitor as well as keeping up with his own tasks, he and John hadn't had much chance to do anything but sleep in the few hours each night they had together. Now that John had both Rodney and time, he wanted to take advantage of both. "Want me to take your mind off of it for a while?" he offered in his best husky voice.

Rodney was dragging John to the bed before John even managed to finish his sentence.

ooo

They ended up going with the penal colony idea, despite Rodney repeatedly pointing out the risks of Wraith (or, potentially worse, some _other_ new alien race) stumbling across the planet they'd chosen. Elizabeth and Ellison voted him down however, and Rodney spent the evening ranting about the two of them and burning off the remainder of his frustration in bed.

John couldn't exactly say that he minded.

The morning after Lereaux was sent away (an occasion only attended by a few of the highest-ranked people in Atlantis, but which was somehow recorded and distributed within half an hour anyway), Elizabeth announced there would be a city-wide meeting that evening in the huge room near the mess hall that had hosted the original Sheppard party. They had retained most of the set-up from that event, including the stage, sound system, tables, and chairs, though the furniture itself had been pushed out of the way for the purposes of the meeting -- John had done that himself, as Elizabeth had named him Special Events Coordinator for the city after the party. Just like his old job with Atlantis Catering, actually, except he did most of the grunt work himself and, frankly, special events in the city of Atlantis were pretty few and far between.

The current compromise about John's presence in the labs required him to be there just a couple of hours each afternoon (said hours happened to coincide with a daily meeting that required Zelenka's attendance); since Elizabeth's meeting was well outside of those hours, John swung by the lab in the hopes of walking with Rodney to the party room. Unfortunately, Rodney wasn't there, but John was thrilled with his replacement companion. "Miko!"

"Hello, John," she said with a smile as he picked her up and twirled her around. She allowed it for a few seconds before smacking the back of his head. He hastily put her back down.

"I haven't seen you in _days_," John pointed out. "Where have you been?"

"Working on a project," Miko said. "I'm done now, though, so I'll be back in the labs."

John grinned. "Great!" He started to lean in for another hug, but Miko narrowed her eyes slightly. "Right, um -- want to go to the meeting with me?"

Miko acquiesced and turned off her laptop, and soon they were walking out the door.

"So do you know what this meeting is about?" John asked. "I've heard anything from us finding a ZPM, to the chance that there might be another traitor in the city."

"We'll find out soon enough," Miko said neutrally, and John shot her a look. She just smiled slightly and walked a little faster.

Rodney wasn't anywhere to be found in the party hall either, though they were a little early. John just shook his head and decided to kill some time by grilling his sister. "So, what was the project you were working on?"

"Just a sewing project," Miko said.

John stared at her. Miko had taught herself how to sew when she was younger, but though she'd gotten pretty good at it (she'd made her own prom dress), she'd given it up when she'd discovered cooking. "I didn't know you still did that."

"I haven't for a while. It was nice to do it again."

John intended to keep on pushing (for example: how had she talked Rodney into letting her out of the lab for a week so she could do a crafts project?), but they were interrupted by Rodney's arrival. Rodney looked distinctly unhappy, so John nudged him with his shoulder and gave him a cheeky grin while asking, "What kept you?"

Rodney snorted. "Elizabeth had this ridiculous idea that she needed my input for--" He suddenly yelped and glared at Miko, who stared back innocently. Crossing his arms, he said flatly, "I was in a meeting."

"Uh, huh," John said doubtfully.

"Shut up," Rodney said sulkily, pointedly moving a half-step farther away from Miko.

Elizabeth climbed up to the stage and John gratefully turned away from his squabbling boyfriend and sister. A moment later Teyla stepped onto the stage as well and John's jaw dropped at the sight. She was wearing a skintight outfit of buttery soft looking leather pants and a corset of slightly darker and rougher leather that was decorated with a pair of sticks under her breasts. She looked like some sort of tribal princess. From a porn movie.

John turned to glare at Miko. "Tell me that isn't your sewing project."

Miko just smiled.

When John turned back to the stage, Teyla had been joined by MacGyver, Blair, and Ronon, none of whom were wearing tribal princess porn clothes, which John considered blatant sexism.

John muttered out of the side of his mouth. "I'm going to kill both of you, you know that, right?"

Neither Rodney nor Miko bothered to respond and a second later Elizabeth started speaking. "Thank you all for coming on such short notice. As you are all aware, yesterday we suffered a loss, a tragic loss, a betrayal by one of our own. It is a blow, one that will not heal overnight. However, Atlantis is a city full of amazing individuals, and I have faith that as a group, as a _family_, we will recover. And tonight we take a first step towards that recovery."

She turned and gestured for Teyla to come forward. "You all know Teyla Sheppard, one of Atlantis's top diplomats. She's been key in our ongoing efforts to find allies and trading partners in Pegasus.

"Last week Teyla came to me and suggested that Atlantis might benefit from having a gate team solely dedicated to diplomacy and, after considerably discussion with Captain Ellison and Dr. McKay," Rodney snorted, "we've decided to form such a team."

Okay, forget killing Miko and Rodney, John was going to kill _Teyla_. How could she have kept this a secret?

Elizabeth smiled and gestured for the rest of the folks on stage to come forward. "Ladies and gentlemen, I'd like to introduce you to the Atlantis diplomatic team: Teyla Sheppard, lead diplomat; Blair Sandburg, anthropologist; MacGyver," here Elizabeth shot a slight glare at the man in question and John suddenly found himself wondering if MacGyver was a first or last name, "pilot and technical support; and Ronon Sheppard, who will offer security if necessary."

The crowed, which had been relatively quiet up to this point, erupted in murmurs and whispering. Elizabeth gave them a second before continuing: "I would like to emphasize that the diplomatic team is _not_ a first contact team. Ideally, they will only be called in once a planet has been judged safe and its inhabitants open to discussion. Because of this intent, the diplomatic team will be unarmed. Therefore, it is _key_ that first contact teams are certain of the safety of a planet before calling the diplomats in. If necessary, an armed team might accompany the diplomat team, but that should be considered a last resort."

John thought back to Miko gushing (well, gushing for Miko, anyway) over MacGyver's ability to make a blasting cap out of an MRE wrapper, and suddenly had a better idea of why a diplomatic team needed 'technical support'. And, now that he thought about it, those sticks sewn into Teyla's outlandish outfit looked remarkably similar to the sticks that the Athosians used in hand-to-hand combat. Teyla had spent the last few months learning to use them and had gotten really good. Ronon, of course, could take out a small third world country with just his bare hands. John found himself wondering what Blair's secret weapon was. Kung-fu?

"The diplomatic team will begin missions starting next week. If you'd like more information, please feel free to contact Teyla or Blair.

"Thank you for taking the time to come. Dinner has been laid out in the mess hall. I believe gumbo is on the menu tonight."

That forestalled any potential questions and the crowd herded towards the doors. John hung back with Rodney and Miko. "Why do I feel like I've just been PRed?"

"Because you have?" Rodney said dourly. "Apparently Elizabeth thought this would improve 'morale'." The air quotes were heavily implied.

"Still, it's a good deal for Teyla," John said thoughtfully. He glanced at Miko. "They really put her and Ronon on the same team?"

"I don't believe he is going on every mission," Miko answered. "Just those that have a significant potential to be dangerous."

"Oh, okay. That would work." John sighed. "I just wish we could have thrown a party for this. Being a Special Events Coordinator sucks when there aren't any special events."

"And no party food," Rodney added mournfully.

"There's gumbo," Miko offered. "By now the line will have gone down a bit."

Rodney brightened and grabbed John by the hand to drag him in the direction of the mess hall. Miko followed at a more reasonable pace.

ooo

It was such a calm, peaceful day when it all went to hell.

John, in his ongoing quest to find something to do in Atlantis besides occasionally turning stuff on and getting beat up by Ronon on a regular basis (though Rodney was obviously thrilled by the way John's body had been changing since John had started training and John himself thought he was getting a little better. He had almost landed a punch on Ronon last week and he was fairly sure Ronon hadn't just been humoring him), was searching through the closets in the explored part of the city, looking for anything that might be useful, if not essential. He was considering a box of burnt-out crystals (maybe they could be used to make decorations) when he heard Rodney on the radio. "We need a med team to sector 29 _immediately_."

John frowned and stood up, the crystals forgotten. Several of the scientists had been exploring the city today, which (after the black energy sucking cloud incident) had put John on edge despite all of Rodney's reassurances that they were going to be much more careful this time around.

Apparently not. John switched his communicator to the channel that Rodney had set up just for the two of them. "Rodney, everything okay there?"

"Not now, John," Rodney answered sharply.

Why that annoying little... John closed his eyes and counted to ten. Then twenty. Then a hundred by primes. When he was no longer at risk of running to sector 29 to beat the crap out of Rodney, he opened his eyes and headed for the control room. Maybe Elizabeth or Chuck could tell him what was going on.

The control room proved to be in a state of barely-controlled panic. Elizabeth was gritting her teeth as she spoke to someone in her communicator, so John wandered over in Chuck's direction instead. "What's going on?"

Chuck jumped in his seat at the sound of John's voice. "Sorry, sorry. Uh, a couple of the scientists reported seeing...something, and now they're both dead."

"What?" John asked, loud enough to catch the attention of several other people in the control room. He blushed and crouched down next to Chuck, so that he was barely visible over the console. Now was not the time to get kicked out. "What do you mean dead? What killed them?"

"We don't know yet," Chuck answered. "Dr. McKay thinks it's some sort of infection, but Dr. Beckett isn't convinced. They're sending folks in hazmat suits down there now."

Hazmat suits. Jesus. John sank down till he was properly sitting on the floor. "Who died?" John asked, trying to remember exactly who Rodney said would be exploring today.

"Dr. Johnson and Dr. Wagner," Chuck said, and he buried his face in his hands. "God, I hope they didn't go into another lab."

John patted Chuck on the shoulder and silently added an amen.

A couple of hours later, John was still sitting in the control room and getting increasingly more panicked. At this point, they'd figured out that the 'infection' was actually an artificial virus made from nanotechnology. Unfortunately there didn't seem to be an antidote, and several more scientists were dead, including Wallenstein.

Worst of all, there was nothing John could do. Hell, he couldn't even leave the control tower, since one of the scientists had managed to get into the transporter network and activated the city's quarantine. As a result, John had had no option but to sit and listen as scientist after scientist died. With each death, Rodney's voice grew more and more panicky, and John ached for him. Every scientist on this mission had been an employee at Pegasus Labs at one time or another, and Rodney had been the one to invite them to come to Atlantis. Now they were dying and Rodney was blaming himself.

John pushed back against the console, and gritted his teeth as Rodney reported another death. Thankfully Miko had chosen to stay in the labs, so she was safe, but Rodney himself had been infected over five hours ago, which meant he had less than an hour to live. Probably not much than half an hour at this point.

"What the fuck," John muttered, switching his communicator back to the private channel. At this point he didn't care if Rodney did shout at him, there were a few things that had to be said before it was too late. "Rodney?"

There was a pause, then: "John?" Rodney's voice was a strange blend of fear and relief. "I'm sorry I yelled at you earlier."

Oh, god, was that why Rodney had been so quiet? He thought John was _mad_ at him? "Rodney, I don't care about that," John said, trying really hard to keep his emotions under control. Chuck was doing a good job of pretending that he couldn't hear John's half of the conversation, but some of the other people in the gate room weren't as polite. "How are you feeling?" he asked softly.

"I'm okay," Rodney answered in a thin, terrified voice that proved just how not okay he was. John managed a fond, if sad smile. Rodney always did pick the most unexpected times to be brave.

"Any luck yet on figuring out how to turn off the nanobots?"

"No," Rodney sighed, though his voice grew stronger now that he was talking about something other than his impending death. "We considered a computer virus, but we weren't able to interface with the nanovirus."

"Maybe build bots of your own?" John offered.

Rodney snorted. "Sure, if I had a year or two to work on it. John, I--" He stopped suddenly and John held his breath. "Where are you?" Rodney ended up asking, which was obviously not what he was planning on saying.

John sighed. "In the gateroom."

"Oh, thank God," Rodney said. "Swear to me you won't come anywhere near the bodies, or even the infirmary."

"Rodney, I--"

"John!"

"I swear," John said, his eyes burning now. "I swear, even though it's not going to matter, because you're going to find a way to beat this thing, you hear me? You're going to be just fine."

There was a suspicious sniff, then: "I love you, John. I know I don't tell you that often enough, but I really love you and--oh God. Meeting you was the best thing that ever happened to me. I know I fucked up your life and I'm so sorry--"

"No," John hissed sharply. "No! I love you, Rodney McKay, you understand me? I love you and you are the best thing that ever happened to me, too."

There was a long silence then. John wanted to check his watch to see how much longer they had left, and at the same time he didn't want to know. He didn't want to count down to Rodney's death. "Shit," John burst out, unable to keep in the _unfairness_ any longer. "_Fuck_."

"I know," Rodney answered.

"You know," John said, not caring how watery his voice was anymore. "I wish we were in some sci-fi show or something, where you could just zap all those nanobots with a death ray or maybe that EMP rocket they used in Independence Day." He sniffed. "Funny how our life seems like a--"

"I'm not dead," Rodney said abruptly.

"What?"

"I'm not dead!" Rodney shouted. "And you're a genius!"

At which point he switched over to the public channel and started shouting.

When all was said and done, they had a theory and a plan. The theory was that the ATA gene was what kept Rodney alive (and which Zelenka, the scientist whose clock was currently running out the fastest, didn't have). The plan was, as far as John could tell, to replicate the EMP rocket from ID4 and blow it up over the city. The rocket could be jerry-rigged from a naquada generator. The getting it over the city part was presumably going to involve a gateship.

John was listening as Rodney frantically gave Aiden instructions on how to overload a naquada generator (Aiden had been chosen for the job because was the closest and the best at electronics. Plus, he was a Sheppard, which meant there was a better than even chance that Rodney would refrain from insulting his parentage) when Jim Ellison suddenly loomed overhead. "John?"

Startled, John jerked his head up. He and Ellison were only a couple of inches apart in height, but from this angle, Ellison looked huge. John quickly scrambled to his feet. "Yes, sir?"

It was hard not to call Ellison 'sir'. He was kind of imposing that way.

"I understand you have the ATA gene," Ellison said.

"Uh, yeah," John answered uncertainly.

"In fact, you're the only person in the control tower with the gene."

John blinked, then looked around the room. He hadn't thought of it before, but Ellison was right.

Ellison crossed his arms and smiled. "Have you ever wanted to fly a gateship?"

John's eyes widened. "No! I mean, I don't know how to fly."

"Hm." Ellison cocked his head. "Any flight training?"

"No." Because if he had, he'd know how to fly. That thought filtered through in a voice that sounded distinctly like Rodney's.

"Flight simulation games?"

"No."

"Ever driven a car?"

"Sure."

"Close enough, you'll be fine."

John gaped at him. "Come on," Ellison added. "Let's get you in a ship."

"But--" John started to protest. Unfortunately, Ellison was already halfway down the stairs and John had to catch up before he could continue to argue. "But I'm not a pilot."

Ellison shrugged. "No one was, when we first got here; I don't think the SGC expected us to find a fleet of spaceships when we arrived. Fortunately, they're not hard to learn."

They entered the ship bay. "Pick one out," Ellison said. "Anyone without a name painted on it is fair game."

John stared at the long row of identical ships. All but one or two were blank. "How about that one?" he asked, pointing at the closest unmarked one.

"Great," Ellison said. "Let's go on board and I'll show you the controls."

They were in the middle of a very quick tutorial when John asked, "If you know these ships so well, why don't you fly it?"

"No gene, unfortunately," Ellison answered. From the way his hands lingered on the ship's controls, that was something wished he could change.

"Have you tried the gene therapy?" John asked. Not that it would help at the moment, since it took several hours for the drug to work.

"I can't," Ellison answered. "I have drug sensitivities. We never know how I'll react to something new."

_We?_, John thought. Out loud, he said, "Okay, maybe I should try, I don't know, turning her on?"

Ellison climbed out of the pilot's seat with a hint of reluctance. "All yours."

John grasped the controls and thought, _On._

All of the consoles suddenly lit up. Well, that was easy enough. Then again, John had had plenty of practice at turning Ancient technology on.

"Good," Ellison said. "Now see if you can't get her to cover a couple of inches off of the floor."

By the time John mastered hovering and had managed to move the ship around the bay once with only one minor collision, Aiden came in hauling a platform on wheels. On top of the platform was a piece of machinery that was flashing ominously.

"We've got to hurry," Aiden gasped. "It's going to blow in a few minutes."

Swearing under his breath, John helped Ellison and Aiden drag the generator into the back of the jumper. As soon as John had moved back up into the cockpit, Ellison called from the back, "Close the rear door."

John closed his eyes and listened as the ship whispered to him. A second later, the back door closed.

"Good," Ellison said. "Now open it again"

That proved even easier. Really, the ship seemed to like him or something. Usually he didn't even have to touch the console to make it do what he wanted.

"Great," Ellison said once the door was open. "Now, I need you to close the cockpit door and keep it closed. Once you reach a high enough altitude, open the rear hatch to let out the generator and keep on going as fast as you can. You'll only have a few seconds to outrun the shock wave.

"Right," John said, feeling kind of shell-shocked. Still what else _could_ he say?

Suddenly Ellison walked into the cockpit and patted John on the shoulder. "You'll do fine."

John looked up and offered a sickly smile. "Thanks."

Ellison patted him one more time and left.

"Okay," John muttered under his breath. "Time to get this show on the road."

In the end, getting out of the city proved to be the hardest part; once he reached clear blue skies, all he had to do was tell the ship to speed up.

It was surprisingly exhilarating.

He was about five thousand feet up when Rodney's voice spoke into his ear. "Be careful, John."

"I will," John answered and he didn't know if they were on an open channel, but at this point he didn't care either. "I love you."

A brief hesitation and then, in Rodney's warmest bedroom voice, "I love you, too."

John grinned and the ship went a little faster.

"John?" That was Elizabeth.

"Yeah?"

"You're almost at the drop-off point. At the count of three, I want you to drop your payload and increase your speed as much as possible. It's best if you can clear the atmosphere before the generator explodes."

"Right," John answered, suddenly feeling horribly nervous. Clear the atmosphere. Christ.

"One. Two. _Three_."

John thought the back door open and left it open as he begged the ship to give him everything she had. "Come on, baby," he whispered under his breath as the sky outside the viewscreen slowly grew darker. "Come on, come on, come _on_!"

The sky was closer to purple than black when he heard Chuck say, "We have detonation."

Oh, shit. John closed his eyes, called up that part of his mind that spoke to Ancient technology, and _pushed_.

The ship responded by jerking forward and suddenly John found himself staring at the planet, which was when he realized that he was _upside down_ in _space_ and that was when he began to hyperventilate and his vision greyed out.

ooo

"...john. John can you read me?"

John gasped and sat upright, looking around frantically to figure out where he was and what was going on.

The big view of space occasionally intercut with flashes of a blue planet really didn't help.

"John?"

There, _that_ helped.

"Rodney?"

A ragged sigh that almost sounded like a sob. "Thank _God_. John, are you okay?"

John dragged himself to his chair and sat in it so he'd have both hands free to clutch his head. "Yeah, I think so. Did it work?"

"Of course it did," Rodney answered with a hint of indignation. "Why aren't you back yet?"

At that, John had to smile, despite his headache. God, he loved this man. Loved him so much, and today he very nearly lost him. "Hey, Rodney?"

"Yes?"

"Will you marry me?"

A sudden, huge burst of jumbled noise blasted in John's ear and he jerked the communicator off for a second. By the time he tentatively put it back on, it was silent. "Rodney?" he called. Nothing. "Elizabeth? Miko?"

Still nothing.

Completely forgetting to be nervous, John latched onto the console and told the ship to go home. _Now._

The fact that Atlantis was clearly intact helped ease John's mind as he flew down into the heart of the city, but it wasn't until he saw Rodney waiting for him in the ship bay that John's heart stopped trying to pound his way out of his chest. John was out of the ship and in Rodney's arms without even realizing quite how he got here. "Shhh," Rodney said, his hand rubbing John's back soothingly. "It's okay."

"What the _fuck_ happened?" John asked hoarsely.

Rodney chuckled softly. "We were on an open channel when you...you know. Apparently everyone tried to talk at once and it shorted out the system. Zelenka's working on it."

"Oh," John said, slumping against Rodney in relief. "Okay. That's okay."

He stiffened up again, however, as he realized something very important. "You didn't answer me."

A hand smacked the back of his head. "The answer's yes. Of course."

John grinned and leaned in for some kisses. He figured he'd earned them.

They were still necking (and getting just a bit more touchy-feely than they probably should be in the middle of the ship bay) when John heard a throat clearing. He tried to jump back, but Rodney's hands at his waist held him close and, honestly, John wasn't really interested in fighting very hard. In the end he just turned his head to see who was interrupting them.

And found himself staring at all of Atlantis.

At that, John and Rodney _both_ jumped back, and nearly fell in the process. Someone (who sounded suspiciously like Laura) called out, "Well?"

John grinned soppily. He couldn't help it. "He said yes!"

The walls shook as every single person in the room burst out cheering.

John's grin grew even wider and he glanced over to see Rodney blushing furiously. Shaking his head, John pulled Rodney in for a hug and held him tight. Rodney clutched back just as tightly.

In the warm safety of their embrace, John turned to whisper in Rodney's ear: "I'm topping tonight."

"_Yes!_" Rodney crowed, and held him even tighter.

_Epilogue_

Things got a little crazy after that.

Laura was nominated by the Sheppard family to inform John that he did not, in fact, get to plan his own wedding, and he and Rodney were instructed to pick a date within the next two weeks for the ceremony.

"Only two weeks?" John had asked, aghast.

"We have to wait two weeks?" Rodney had asked, plaintively.

They ended up compromising at ten days, and were summarily ordered to avoid anything and anyone who looked like they might be on wedding business. Rodney had just shrugged at that and promptly buried himself in lab work. John might have been a bit more difficult, if he hadn't just been offered a position on the Atlantis flight squad.

"Not everyone interacts well with the ships," Ellison had explained when he offered John the job. "And we just lost MacGyver to the diplomatic team. We need more pilots." Then, to sweeten the deal: "You get to have your own ship."

Which was about the point John fell all over himself saying yes. The next day he found some paint and carefully wrote a word on the side of the ship that had taken him into space: "Puddlejumper".

As it turned out, the flight team was insanely busy due to the fact there were only four of them and John was the only one who didn't pull double duty on a gate (or diplomatic) team. Not only was he called on to ferry around gate teams that didn't have their own pilot, but he also made near-daily trips to the mainland, transporting anything from scientists to supplies. He found himself grateful for the fact that he was an honorary Athosian, as they welcomed his arrival and helped keep him occupied while he waited for the scientists to do whatever they needed to do. Of course, a lot of that occupation involved planting and/or harvesting, but there were times when it involved moonshine and a sport sort of similar to soccer, so it came out all right in the end.

A week after stopping the nanovirus and three days before the wedding, Jim Ellison called John and Rodney to his office. "What do you think it's about?" John asked nervously as they walked the corridors to the control room, where Ellison and Elizabeth both had their offices.

"I don't know," Rodney answered. "But it'd better be fast. I was in the middle of a simulation and if I don't get back soon, Kavanaugh will no doubt screw it up."

John just shook his head, but silently he wondered if this was about Puddlejumper or the flight team. He hoped not -- he'd never had a job he'd liked so much, so quickly.

Ellison greeted them at his door and gestured them inside. Blair was already there, which was usual, but so was Ronon, which most emphatically was not. John swallowed a little harder than strictly necessary, but kept his features neutral as he sat down next to his brother. Rodney took the remaining seat. "Thanks for coming," Ellison said, remaining standing by his desk. "I've asked you here because I want you to join a specialized gate team I'm creating, for rescue missions."

"Very smooth, man," Blair murmured under his breath, but loud enough for John to hear him. "Way to ease them into the idea."

Ellison shot a glare in Blair's direction, but kept on talking. "The fact is, we have a ridiculous number of rescue missions and Ronon can't keep doing them all by himself. Though I do want you on the team," he said to Ronon. "I just want to give you some support."

Ronon raised an eyebrow and pointedly looked around the room.

Ellison crossed his arms over his chest, and suddenly looked a lot larger than he had when John first walked in. "I was a Ranger," he said bluntly. "And I have heightened senses which will be helpful. As for the others, Blair's capable of going undercover pretty much anywhere and I've got it on good authority that there isn't a lock, physical or electronic, that Dr. McKay can't work around."

John cleared his throat. "What about me?"

"We'll need a pilot," Ellison said simply. "You'll stay in the ship," at that Blair snickered, though John had no idea why, "and extract us when we're ready."

Ronon shrugged. "Just don't slow me down."

Blair rolled his eyes. Ellison looked like he wanted to, but didn't. "John? Dr. McKay?"

John and Rodney glanced at each other. "Can we think about it?" John asked.

"Of course," Ellison answered. "Let me know soon, though, so we can begin training."

They agreed and were just out of the office when Elizabeth's voice stopped them. "John, Rodney. Do you have a moment?"

Rodney sighed pointedly, but didn't argue when John said, "Sure." He brightened considerably when Elizabeth offered them a cookie as they sat and he munched on both his and John's cookies as Elizabeth started:

"I was wondering what you two were planning for a honeymoon."

John stared at her in dismay. He hadn't even thought of that.

Rodney, on the other hand, clearly had. "Unless there is a resort somewhere in this galaxy that no one told us about, I figured we'd just lock ourselves in our room for a few days."

Actually, that sounded really good. John grinned at Rodney, who beamed back.

Elizabeth smiled at the both of them. "That sounds wonderful. As an addition to that, however, I thought you might consider a picnic on the mainland. According to Teyla, the Athosians have found a waterfall that would be easily accessible by gateship."

Which seemed like a really personal suggestion for Elizabeth to make. John's eyes narrowed suspiciously. "Did Laura put you up to this?"

Elizabeth laughed lightly. "Yes, she did. I'm not supposed to tell you why, but I doubt Rodney would agree to spend his honeymoon picnicking if you didn't know the details."

"Which are?"

"The Athosians have built a honeymoon cabin," Elizabeth said with a smile.

"For us?" John asked, stunned. He knew the Athosians liked him, but...

"No," Elizabeth said. "And, strictly speaking, it isn't just for honeymoons. Dr. Beckett originally had them build it to serve as a clinic; the bedroom is part of the birthing suite."

"Wait, wait," Rodney said. "You want us to have our honeymoon on the same bed where women routinely give birth to children?" He couldn't have sounded more horrified if she'd suggested their wedding cake be soaked in lemon juice.

Elizabeth rolled her eyes. "Thanks to Anderson in engineering," a department of one since the nanovirus, but thankfully she didn't say that out loud, "the cabin has hot and cold running water. There's also a wood stove, a fireplace, and complete privacy, since the Athosians moved their village after the storm to a more sheltered location. And it really is next to a waterfall."

John thought about that, primarily about the privacy. It was easy enough to say that they'd just lock their doors, but the reality was that Rodney was called away at all hours of the day or night. Frankly, John thought the science department had gotten a little too used to having Rodney at their beck and call. It might be good for them to have to survive without him for a few days.

Rodney sighed. "Can we think about it?"

"Sure," Elizabeth answered. "Just let me know by tomorrow, so we can have the cabin set up."

Rodney groaned but agreed as he stood up. "Come on, John. We've got a lot to talk about."

Yes, yes they did, though John already knew what their answers were going to be. Now he just had to inform Rodney of that fact. Subtly, of course.

ooo

They said yes to both the rescue team and the cabin, of course. Rodney had grumbled a bit about both, but John could tell he was intrigued by the idea about being on a gate team. As for the cabin...well. John was quite confident that the last thing Rodney would be doing while they were there was complaining.

The day of the wedding dawned as beautiful as every other day in Atlantis, and John woke up to find Rodney curled around him in bed (Laura had wanted them to sleep in separate rooms the night before the wedding, but both Rodney and John had stood firm on that point). John smiled and carefully wrapped an arm around Rodney's shoulders as he stared up at the ceiling and contemplated what was coming.

He was getting married.

John "Commitmentphobe" Sheppard was getting _married_.

Sure, it wasn't a marriage that would be recognized by any government or religion on Earth, but what did that matter? They lived here, on Atlantis, and as far as everyone in Atlantis was concerned, John was about to commit himself for life to Rodney McKay.

And it felt fantastic.

John grinned and pulled Rodney a little closer, so he could drop a kiss on top of that wonderfully soft hair.

The wedding itself was a relatively subdued affair, just the Sheppard family, Elizabeth, Ellison (who John was trying to start calling Jim, since they were on the same gate team and all), Blair, and Zelenka (who had softened up a lot since that nanovirus incident and who was apparently ready to forgive everything now that John was making an honest man of Rodney). An Athosian elder led the ceremony, though since neither John nor Rodney had any particular religious beliefs, she had agreed to keep the ritual short. It only took about ten minutes overall.

The reception, now...that was a different thing all together. Miko had been in charge of the food, and she'd made sure there was enough that even Rodney would be satisfied: meatballs, mini-sandwiches (including turkey sandwiches for John -- he was pretty sure that used up the remainder of Atlantis's turkey supply, and he made a mental note to thank Miko for that in particular), cheeses, bread, and fruit made up the healthy side of the meal, but most of the tables were groaning under the weight of desserts: pies, cookies, cakes, puddings, tarts, tortes, jams, and jellies. Hell, someone even attempted the chocolate torte cake Rodney had loved so much when Atlantis was still just a catering firm he reluctantly dealt with to satisfy corporate social requirements.

"Wow," Rodney breathed as he saw the amount of sugary treats on display. "I think I love your sister."

John grinned. "Good, because she's your sister now, too."

Rodney smiled back, though the smile was tinged with sadness. "I do have a sister, you know. Jeannie. I wish you'd had a chance to meet her."

John pulled Rodney into a tight hug. "I _will_ meet her," he promised. "You'll get us back, Rodney, I know you will."

Rodney just shook his head and said, "You know, I'd rather not cry on my wedding day."

Fair enough. John let Rodney go, but held onto his hand. "Wanna cut the cake? I hear it's real chocolate."

Rodney's answering grin was blinding.

As far as John knew, the reception was going to last late into the night, but since Rodney wasn't much of a partier (unless forced) and since John wanted there to be plenty of daylight left to find the cabin, they ended up leaving the party after just a couple of hours. Fortunately Teyla and Miko had anticipated their early departure and they ran interference with Ronon's assistance so that the newlyweds were able to get out relatively quickly.

"Thank God," Rodney said once they made it to the corridor. "I hate parties."

"Even your own?" John asked with a smirk.

"_Especially_ my own," Rodney retorted. "Though the food was good."

"I think Miko saved us some," John offered. "It's stored away in Puddlejumper."

"Really? Then what are we waiting for?"

John laughed and let himself be dragged down the hall, though he did glance back and wave to his siblings, all of whom were watching him go (and, coincidentally, keeping anyone else from leaving the party till John and Rodney had made their escape).

The ship bay was empty, since everyone but a skeleton crew (which rotated every two hours so everyone had a chance to enjoy themselves) was at the party. John took advantage of the solitude to kiss Rodney soundly for several minutes, until Rodney pushed him away. "Enough, unless you've changed your mind about the whole cabin fiasco."

John grinned. "Fraid not. Come on, the sooner we start, the sooner we can leave."

With that kind of incentive, Rodney made record time finding his seat.

"Ready?" John asked.

"Yes," Rodney answered. He gripped the armrests and added, "Fly fast."

John grinned and took Puddlejumper out of the ship bay. As he pointed his ship up at the sky and let her loose, he reached over and grabbed Rodney's hand.

God, he loved his life.

Finis

Crossover notes:  
-Jim Ellison and Blair Sandburg are the titular character of The Sentinel and said sentinel's guide. I'm 99% sure you've already heard of them. Jim and Blair were played by Richard Burgi and Garett Maggart, respectively.

-I'm 99.9% sure you've heard of MacGyver, the man who can single-handedly defeat the bad guys armed with nothing more than a Swiss Army knife and a bit of duct tape. In this universe he obviously never joined the Phoenix Foundation (though, based on his and Jack's respective ages, I was trying to imply that I'd moved MacGyver canon into the late nineties, rather than the late eighties). He was played by Richard Dean Anderson (_pauses to let the cheering die down_)

-And that's it, actually. I thought about adding more (I might have been able to work in a Dr. Who reference, for example), but unlike The Proposition, where I needed more characters than I had available to me and which was, you know, set on _Earth_, Proposition 2 is a much smaller, more intimate story and it was tough finding places even for Jim and Blair (which were always intended to be part of the story) and MacGyver (strictly gratuitous). Though if someone wants to write a fic where Fraser, or House, or Dean (or, oh my god, all _three_) show up in Proposition Atlantis, I'm not about to complain:)

Miko's Chicken and Sausage Gumbo (_with notes from Mess Sergeant Willie_)

Ingredients:  
1/4 cup flour (_Pegasus Galaxy equivalent: kelfa grain from MXP-9852_)  
1/4 cup vegetable oil (_'olive oil' from XPM-7634_)  
1 large can chicken broth (_no equivalent needed. Yet_.)  
1 green bell pepper, finely chopped _soreno peppers from PXM-3823_)  
3 ribs celery, finely chopped (_those rutabaga things from MXP-4234_)  
1 medium yellow cooking onion, finely chopped (_'Rodney McKay's Big Fat Ego' aka that onion thing Katie Brown found on PMX-2349_)  
3 green onions, finely chopped (_more Big Fat Ego_)  
Pepper to taste (_that mold growing on the railing by the West Pier -- **don't tell McKay**_)  
1-2 lbs cubed chicken -- (_Ibixi_)  
1 lb smoked sausage -- (_half-Ibixi, half-scary-mutant-cow from PXM-4389, mix with a fistful of 'pepper' and whateverthefuck seasoning_)  
Cajun seasoning to taste (_the whateverthefuck seasoning Miko got from PMX-5248_)  
1/4 cup fresh parsley, finely chopped (_replace with 2 T of weed from Parrish's private garden_)  
Rice (_that pain-in-the-ass lella shit from PXM-8254_)

Directions:  
Use flour and oil to make a roux (see below). Set aside to cool.

Empty chicken broth into large pot. Add 1-2 cans of water (_depending on how much gumbo you want_). Add pepper and vegetables. Bring to a low boil. Add roux and let soup cook for twenty minutes. Add meat and return to low boil for twenty minutes. Add Cajun seasoning and parsley. Bring to boil.

Turn off stove. Store any gumbo you want to freeze for later at this point. Transfer the remainder into a crockpot (_i.e, that Ancient bunsen burner Zelenka found_) and turn on high. Cook for at least four hours (_overnight on low heat is better_). Skim the oil off the top of the gumbo. Serve over rice (_ha! _).

Addendum: How to Make Roux  
Combine oil and flour in a heavy saucepan. Using a wooden spoon (_seriously: this shit **melts Teflon**_), stir the mixture into a paste and cook over medium heat. Stirring at least once a minute, cook until the mixture darkens to desired color (_the darker the better to cover up the taste of the 'pepper'_). Be careful the first time you make this -- if the roux burns you'll have to start over (_learned that the hard way_).

A/N: This is a thank you fic for bluespirit_star, who is wonderful beyond measure. A second thank you to my beta, Xanthe, who always does an amazing job.


End file.
